If everyone knows that it's wrong...

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Joe Sheehan's riding one of his hobby horses.

John Perrotto made the point, via Twitter, that the umpires in today’s Rockies/Phillies failed for the cycle, blowing calls at first base (Jimmy Rollins), second (Cliff Lee), third (Yorvit Torrealba) and home (pick one).

I feel like I write more about umpires than many people do, and it’s because I feel strongly that what happens on the field isn’t subject to interpretation. If a player’s foot hits a base before a glove with a ball in it touches that player, that player is entitled to the base, he’s safe, and that doesn’t change because some middle-management functionary says otherwise. If a breaking ball crosses the plate at a point between a batter’s knees and the midpoint between his shoulders and pants, it’s a strike, no matter what the anachronism behind the plate thinks he sees. In eighteendicketysix, a human being was state-of-the-art technology for making these decisions. Now, you can get better information-we do get better information-by using better technology. Championships should be decided by the players and by what actually happened, not by what somebody thinks happened.

Click the link, because the rant with which he follows this is amusing. In any event, I'm in full agreement. It's ridiculous that everyone in the World can see that a runner is safe (or out) by rule, and he is called out (or safe) by one guy without the best angle or just misses it, and there's nothing that can be done about it.