I admit it's a pet peeve. I'm not just whining about the obvious (and gutless) terrible calls at critical times that have cost the Jays games in St. Louis, Boston and Tampa this year; the quality of umpiring in the majors is atrocious.
In a Houston Chronicle column, John P. Lopez blames MLB, and Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker agrees:
"...Major League Baseball has not made a commitment to a recruiting program and a development program for the umpires. Consequently, we continue to have umpires promoted to the major-league level that in many instances aren't qualified and aren't prepared."
MLB's "solution" -- the controversial QuesTec system -- may actually be responsible for increasing the umps' collective incompetence and arrogance. Hunsicker says it "...leads to heightened emotion and potential conflicts between managers and umpires, players and umpires." The recent incident in Houston with an overmatched subsititute ump is referred to as the "Kent-Williams mix-up." Hey, don't blame me!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030812094922999