JOHN HIRSHBECK: UNFIT TO UMPIRE?

Although the incidents were years apart and one had to understand the nature of what Hirshbeck had been going through back in the mid-'90s it was no suprise to anyone that he had come up on a short list of umpires who missed a large amount of balls and strikes.

And blown calls once again were particularly evident in a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees in which Hirshbeck blew at least seven calls, including missing the play that drilled Lyle Overbay in the foot, and then not giving A.J. Burnett strike three on a fastball that was blatantly straight down the middle. At this point you had to wonder if this was Hirshbeck's way of making it up to Overbay that he had blown the call. Later on in the game, a close play at the plate revealed that Texiara had indeed slid in safely despite Hirshbeck's "out" call, and A.J. Burnett was given far too large of an outside corner at times to work with. This was especially noticeable when Brian Tallet literally got no calls whatsoever at critical moments in the ball game on the outside corner himself.

Given Hirshbeck's storied 25-year major league career, this blogger has to suggest that perhaps John Hirshbeck is still a culprit of routinely blowing calls as a home plate umpire at the very least. It's tough to knock down a Major League crew chief, though.

A hard knock at the very least this is, but this will be ongoing- is John Hirshbeck becoming too unfit to umpire? Canseco once said something along the words that the Minor League Umpires will do everything they can to call the game right, but when they get up to the big league level, after a certain number of years, they feel like they have the power to influence a game....and that's not right, even if it is natural to happen.

Alot of players talk to Hirshbeck during the game, and that's just a little bit interesting too...is Hirshbeck distracting himself?

Maybe this is all ridiculous, maybe it is, but I wonder, Hirshbeck is almost 55 years old, and I know that's not very old for a man, but middle-aged men don't change much, that I know. He's probably the same umpire he was in 2002 when he was warned for missing so many calls behind the plate...

But then again, in Hirshbeck's words:

"Some guys have a tighter strike zone, but if the ball is over the plate at the right height, that's a strike no matter who you are," Hirschbeck said. "Up and down, the same thing. Some guys are a little tighter. They want that ball, in their minds, to be right on the plate. 'Other guys say that if it nicks the corner, that's good enough for me..."

The umpiring styles vary, I guess, but still, maybe, and just maybe John Hirshbeck should be under an "umpire watch". We'll see how he performs for the rest of the series. Twenty-five years in the bigs- the man's gotta feel just a tad too comfortable.

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