Umpiring in Major League Baseball is a Major Issue

The Phillies pulled off an exhilarating win in Game 4. Jimmy Rollins was able to turn around a 99 mph fastball from one of the game's best relievers to drive in the tying and winning runs. And Jonathan Broxton has nobody but himself to blame for walking Matt Stairs on 4 straight pitches.

However, the game was somewhat diminished by the surreal home plate umpiring. Ball-and-strike calls were as unpredictable as El Nino. Randy Wolf has to be still talking to himself after having three consecutive called balls clearly shown on replay to be three consecutive strikes, in some cases by a wide margin.

No two umpires have precisely the same strike zone. This has been understood from time immemorial. But what we saw Monday night, an egregious but by no means isolated example, is undermining the credibility of the game and asking the players to perform with one hand tied behind their backs. Major league baseball's powers-that-be need to put this issue at the top of their to-do list.