MLB Hall of Fame announces non-player candidates

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A vision of sharper umpires

With the Championship Series under way and the World Series looming, the baseball world is buzzing with criticism of the umpiring during the first round of the playoffs. In a game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins, for example, an umpire called foul a ball that hit the glove of the Yankees left fielder in fair territory -- a mistake that may have cost the Twins the game. Such missed calls have led to a renewed outcry for the wider use of instant replay to ensure better officiating. But before we turn to the intrusion and delay that additional use of tape reviews would cause, a few fundamental problems with professional baseball's umpiring system should be fixed.

From the beginning, umpiring has been seen by those who run baseball as a necessary but marginal aspect of the game. Major League Baseball does not train its own umpires, and therefore it has not established practices that would attract the best people. Those who wish to enter the profession attend schools run by former umpires.

Briefs

Jeter, Teixeira win Gold Gloves

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter won his fourth Gold Glove on Tuesday, joining teammate and first baseman Mark Teixeira among the American League's top fielders.

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter and Seattle right fielder Ichiro Suzuki both won for the ninth straight season. First-time winners were Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria, Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones and Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle.

MLB umpires ratify five-year deal

The World Umpires Association voted in favor of a new five-year contract with Major League Baseball on Monday.

The new deal will be effective through December 31, 2014.

One of the main provisions in the deal is that the prohibition against umpires working the World Series in consecutive seasons has been done away with.

Dawson chosen for baseball Hall

Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday in his ninth try, and Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar fell just short of earning baseball's highest honor.

Dawson received 420 of 539 votes in results announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, 15 more than the 75 percent necessary to gain election. The eight-time All-Star outfielder had fallen 44 votes short last year.

"If you're a Hall of Famer, eventually you're going to get in no matter how long it takes," Dawson said during a telephone conference call. "The wait isn't a big factor in the scheme of things. You get frustrated when, you know, people continue to say, 'Well, when do you think you're going to get in?' And you don't really have the answer to that.

All eyes are on the ump

In Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," a time-traveling American brought baseball to 6th-century England, where arguments with umpires were robust: "The umpire's first decision was usually his last. ... When it was noticed that no umpire ever survived a game, umpiring got to be unpopular." But it remains a necessary, extraordinarily demanding and insufficiently appreciated craft.

Now, however, comes "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires" by Bruce Weber of The New York Times. Forests are felled to produce baseball books, about 600 a year, most of them not worth the paper they should never have been printed on. Weber's, however, is a terrific introduction to, among much else, the rule book's Talmudic subtleties, such as:

A great fielding play can cost the fielder's team the game. With less than two out, if a player makes a catch and falls into the stands, every runner moves up a base. So with a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game, if a fielder