"I will not sacrifice fairness for game control." This statement alone tells me you still don't understand.

Fairness is to be judged according to the participants' and spectators' reality - not our own. It's their game, not ours. If everyone sees a pitch as a strike then by golly it's a strike. That's fair.

This isn't about game control. It's about umpires being careful not to be bigger than the game.

Learning to call what everyone else sees is probably the toughest challenge we face as officials. The "easy route" is to call only our own reality. We can justify it to ourselves, but does that really make it right? I don't think so.

That's why it takes years to become a good official. Because there are things on a baseball diamond that can never be taught in a classroom. Oh, some have tried. Phantom tag plays, neighborhood plays, strike zones of least resistance - all of these are techniques to teach umpires how to call the game that everyone else sees. Because it is the game that everyone else sees that is the only true reality.

If you see a shade of color and you call it "burnt sienna" but everyone else in the world sees the same color and calls it "brown" - the world is right - it's brown. It would be futile to convince the whole world that they're wrong. Reality is relative.

The people of New Orleans call their home, "N'Orlins". That makes the proper pronunciation of their home, "N'Orlins". You can't tell all of them that they're wrong and their home is actually pronounced, "New Or-leens". Reality is relative.

The same is true on a baseball diamond. If everyone sees a pitch as a strike, well by golly it's a strike. That's fair.

This isn't totally about game control. It's about doing the best job we can as umpires. And we are in no position to tell the world their wrong when we are alone with our opinion.

Judgment calls sometimes present choices. Making the best choice is what umpiring is all about. It's not about being a Cyclops and calling strict lines and black and white events. It's about knowing what choice to make that falls in line with everyone else's reality of the same events.

Soem umpires talk about wanting to "do as an umpire what you would want an umpire to do." I can't imagine that you would want an umpire to call a runner safe when you and everyone else saw the runner as out. You would blame the umpire for trying to be bigger than the game. That's what we're talking about.

And before anyone goes off on a tangent these ideas are not used all the time. Yet another reason why experience is vital to umpiring success is because experience is the only way to learn when to use these principles. No one would argue that we should make an incorrect ruling because everyone believes the hands are part of the bat. So please, no extreme examples to prove me wrong because it is not extreme examples that I am talking about.

This year I had a call at the plate. It was a tournament game - really big game. The winning run was on third. The pitcher was going from the wind-up and the runner took off. I called the pitch and then the runner arrived. The catcher laid a tag on the runner. I called him, "Out!" and we played on.

Coaches, league personnel, umpires from my own association as well as my Umpire-in-Chief were in attendance at that game. Most of them approached me afterwards and said, "I wouldn't have wanted to make that call. Great job!"

"Hey, Jim, great call at the plate there."

"We haven't had you in awhile. Welcome back!"

These were the people cheering for the runner's team. The same runner I called out.

I told my UIC, "You know, he was safe at the plate. His toe made it just before the tag." But I was congratulated further for making the "right choice". The whole world saw that runner as out. I was the only one who saw him as safe. But my experience took over and somehow I knew that out was a better choice.

Some will say I cheated.

I say they're wrong and that the runner was truly out - even if his toe did reach the plate first. Why?

Because reality is relative. Everyone saw the runner as out so that's what he was.

It's brown, not burnt sienna, because the world says it's brown.

Sincerely,
Jim Porter

..... originally posted on the Umpires Resource Centre Message Board on August 5, 2000 and reposted here with the permission of the author.