Sports

Robot umps could speed things up
Ask Mr. Baseball

Jim Price
Staff writer

If technology gave us a device that could call balls and strikes accurately, how would it change the game?

Dave

Liberty Lake

Loathe as Mr. Baseball may be to air his opinions at the expense of responding to factual inquiries, this reader brings up an issue that raises questions of its own.

If umpiring, even if only for pitched balls, must be infallible, how can we continue to employ all these fallible players?

Consistent strike zones might benefit batters most because the risk involved in letting close ones go by would increase. So, might they swing more often, but more defensively? If so, more balls would be put in play. That might bring a slight increase in scoring, a decrease in the number of home runs and, praise be, faster games.

I would like to know if Jeff Cirillo is related to Carl Cirillo, the former Spokane hockey player.

Maxine

Spokane

These men are almost certainly not related. In fact, they do not share the same last name.

The hockey guy is Carl Cirullo, not Cirillo. A native of Canada but a U.S. citizen, he played several years 1948-58 with the senior amateur Spokane Jets.

Jeff Cirillo, third baseman for the Mariners, is a Pasadena, Calif. native. Although he just joined the M's this season, he has lived in the Seattle area for several years.

How do you steal home?

Jim

Spokane

Unexpectedly. Tricky plays often take place on the first pitch after some sort of incident -- an argument, a confusing play or an interruption, such as those Morganna used to cause.

Steals of home and suicide squeeze plays work best against left-handed pitchers, who have their back to a runner on third. If the pitcher winds up, instead of pitching from the stretch, it is easy for the runner to get a good jump.

Spokane's best-known steal of home occurred in 1988, when Mike Humphreys, after manager Steve Lubratich, coaching at third base, took his joke seriously, went in head-first to give the Indians the Northwest League title.

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