Umpiring is a thankless job. You catch all of the heat when you fail and none of the praise for succeeding.
In fact, if you work 30 years as a major league umpire and no one knows your name, you did a damn good job.
Of course, most jobs have a relatively low threshold for failure. But humans are entitled to mistakes. The difference is, you probably won't get death threats for typing in the wrong number in a excel spread sheet.
So while it's safe to assume umpires have thick skin, it wouldn't kill us to give the boys in blue a pat on the back every once in a while when a special performance warrants it.
Umpire Gabe Morales called 99.4% of taken pitches accurately in Tuesday's White Sox game against the Yankees. Out of 174 pitches taken, Morales missed just one, singular call on a pitch that barely caught the bottom of the batter's box.
To put it into context, only one umpire, Pat Hoberg (who is currently suspended amid gambling allegations), has called a perfect game since Ump Scorecards started tracking games. That legendary performance took place in Game 2 of the 2022 World Series.
Chicago White Sox
Morales shouldn't get used to making headlines, though. News stories about umpires are rarely this kind.
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