Walk this way

Umps put squeeze on, pitchers give up more free passes

It's been a couple of years since Major League Baseball gathered all its umpires together and decided to call a strike a strike.

The result, it seems, has been a fair share of balls.

Walks are up this year in baseball, for what would be the second year in a row. Pitchers who have traditionally been stingy with the free pass now seem to be tossing them around like so many extra resin bags.

Control guys like Greg Maddux are walking more hitters. Curt Schilling's walks-per-nine-innings numbers are up, even after Wednesday's 14-strikeout beauty against the Phillies. Pedro Martinez walked a career-high six batters in a game earlier this season. Barry Zito's walk numbers are up, too.

Some of their numbers are way up. Some barely move the needle.

But walks, throughout the game, are increasing.

Through games of May 12, in fact, there were an average of 7.03 walks a game. That's a jump over the same period last season, when there was an average of 6.84 walks a game. In 2001, there were 6.81 walks a game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Many pitchers and managers say the reason that there are more walks is that, simply, there are more balls being called. What used to be called a strike, they say, is no longer a strike.

Major League Baseball calls it calling the true strike zone.

"In terms of more balls being called, I think that's a misperception," says Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball's vice president of baseball operations. "While walks are up slightly, it's not enough to be of any great significance. I think that will even out in the long run."

Players and managers and umpires have argued about what constitutes a strike ever since the first rulebook rolled off the presses. This latest skirmish began before the 2001 season.

After the previous umpires union crumbled, Major League Baseball brought all the umpiring under a central command. One of the reasons behind the move was to get all the umps to call the strike zone the way the rulebook lays out the strike zone.

A strike, baseball officials decided, was to be the rulebook definition of a strike, no matter who was pitching, who was hitting or -- most importantly -- who was behind the plate calling the game. The so-called "high strike" got a great deal of publicity at the time.

The problem, of course, was getting all the umpires to call pitches the same way, and to do it consistently.

Baseball officials turned to the world of high-tech for help, installing an elaborate system of video cameras and computers in what has turned out to be about a dozen stadiums around the nation. The Umpire Information System, made by a New York firm called QuesTec, tracks the ball from the moment it leaves the pitcher's hand until it crosses the area of the plate.

Computers instantly analyze the ball's movement and compare the end result to the umpire's ultimate call. Major League Baseball then uses this information -- basically measuring what the computer sees against what the ump sees -- to make sure the umps are calling strikes the way baseball wants strikes to be called.

Many umpires, as you might expect, hate the thing. The QuesTec system has been so controversial that the World Umpires Association has filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that the system is not reliable or accurate.

Players aren't too thrilled about it, either. Many pitchers, including Boston's John Burkett and Atlanta's Maddux, have been outspoken in backing the umpires in their complaint. Pitchers, generally, feel that the strike zone has shrunk, especially side-to-side. (The high strike, though, is being called more than it used to be, most agree.)

Hitters, again generally, agree that pitches off the plate aren't being called strikes as often. Two notable exceptions to that, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds, say the strike zone actually has grown this season.

Whatever, baseball officials like what they've seen and believe the QuesTec system is helping umpires become better. They call the QuesTec system just another tool in their quest to get all umpires to call a strike a strike. They are also using it to evaluate umpires, much to the umps' dismay.

"It's the best tool we have available," Alderson said. "We think it's very accurate -- not infallible. We've built in some flexibility to take into account the fact that there can be some amount of error. But we're very happy with what it provides."

After the new emphasis on calling strikes was introduced before that 2001 season, runs dropped, and they've continued to drop (though they're very slightly up this year from last). Home runs are down, too.

The number of walks dropped the first year as well, but they began to creep back up last season and, if the early results from this season hold up, they will be up again in 2003.

Baseball officials don't seem to mind. What they see as an insignificant increase in walks has not affected the pace or the time of the game. Baseball's speed-up initiatives took care of that. Early results show the average time of a game is down to 2:46 this season, from 2:53 in 2002.

In fact, Alderson would rather look at pitch counts for a game. Last year, an average of 284 pitches were thrown in a major league game. This year, so far, it's averaging around 282.

The work on the strike zone is by no means done, either.

"It's an ongoing process of reinterpreting the strike zone in accordance to the rulebook," Alderson said. "The umpires, I think, are doing an excellent job of bringing the outside pitch in closer to the plate. But I still think we have a lot of work to do with the low end of the strike zone."

So if there are more balls and better on-base percentages because of a few more walks -- and, perhaps, not as many strikeouts (they are down from last year, too) -- as long as all the umps are consistent, baseball officials are fine with it.

That's baseball in the high tech age.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.

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