Umps quitting before an MLB Spring Training game officially ends is a new one but the Pirates and Orioles had a great solution after it happened on Tuesday.
Who among us hasn’t experienced a day at work where they just needed to get out of there early? It’s only natural, right? Of course, it’s a little more noticeable when you actually do leave early when it happens to be in the middle of an MLB Spring Training game and you’re the umpires.
Yet, that’s what we saw on Tuesday during a matchup between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.
In fairness to the umps, the Pirates had officially notched the win after they secured three outs in the top of the ninth inning as the home team and leading Baltimore 7-4. However, both teams wanted to finish out the bottom of the ninth inning. The umps did not want such things. So they left.
That didn’t stop the Pirates and Orioles from continuing to play the half-inning with Baltimore catcher Maverick Handley calling the balls and strikes. He, as you’d expect, was definitely a fan of how he framed a pitch or two.
The robot umps could never.
Bring in the robots: Umps leave Pirates-Orioles before game actually finished
Again, if we’re being objective about this, the umps didn’t do anything wrong. They were paid to call a game and, by the rules of baseball, the game was over. That’s that.
The optics of two MLB teams continuing to play with no umpires, however, almost entirely removes any space for objectivity. There is only hilarity. Especially when you consider the very real prospect of robot umpires looming, which don’t need to get home at a certain hour and must get out of the ballpark to do so.
And if the robots don’t work out, we’ll always have the option to let catchers take up the mantle. That’d be one helluva honor code.