What Is This "Rulebook" Of Which You Speak?

From Buster Olney's blog, about an umpire who got nailed twice by foul tips in a game yesterday:

But he was OK to travel Wednesday evening; his crew's next series will be in Chicago this weekend. One of the medical personnel whom Welke spoke with mentioned to him that he seemed to be seeing more direct shots back into the umpire's mask in recent years, and Welke has a theory about that: As umpires have worked to adhere to the ball-strike standards imposed by the QuesTec technology, they have had to stand taller behind the catcher.

"You have to get as high as you can to see the ball on the outside," said Welke. The veteran umpire repeated that he was fine, though. "It's just part of the job," he said.

This is what makes me hate umpires (and, to a lesser extent, Buster Olney). Everybody together now: the strike zone is clearly defined in the rulebook, which predates Questec by, what, 120 years? The reason Questec was instituted was that umpires were notoriously creating their own strike zones - calling strikes on pitches a foot off the corner, calling belt-high pitches balls because they're "high", etc. Also, the strike zones varied widely from ump to ump; some were known as "pitchers' umps" because they'd extend the corners, and some had infamously tight strike zones that obviously favored the hitters.

(By the way, an increasingly frustrating subplot to this phenomenon was the blithe acceptance of it by announcers. "Oh, tonight's umpire has a very wide strike zone, so the hitters will really have to bear down and be prepared to swing at those outside pitches!" "Well, this umpire really hasn't been calling that pitch, but at least he's consistent." etc.)

Anyway, along came Questec with the desired result of - get ready - a uniform strike zone! Wow, what a novel concept! Of course, umpires and pitchers were both pissed about it; umpires because they actually had enforceable standards to which they now had to adhere (as opposed to freely interpreting the rulebook to fit what they personally feel should be a strike), and pitchers because the umps' subjective interpretations generally favored them.

This piece, however, takes the prize for "most moronic case against Questec." Welke is apparently blaming QuesTec for making him get into proper position to call the outside pitches. What was he doing before QuesTec, reclining in a lawn chair and guessing wildly where the ball was? "Well, fuck positioning myself to get a call right, I might get hit by a line drive!" Yes, obviously, some risk is involved in standing about 65 feet from a guy throwing 95 mph, but I'm pretty sure he knew about the risk when he signed up to be a professional umpire. In fact, he even acknowledges that he's aware of the risk, when he bravely admits, "It's just part of the job."

As stupid as Welke comes off in this, though, Olney's words might be even dumber. Let's reprise them:

As umpires have worked to adhere to the ball-strike standards imposed by the QuesTec technology, they have had to stand taller behind the catcher.

The key word there is, of course, "imposed". Again, QuesTec did not "impose" ball-strike standards; those have been around as long as baseball itself. It helped "enforce" the standards, or perhaps "strengthen" them. It's one thing for an umpire who, rightly or wrongly, feels like his authority is being challenged and his physical safety compromised by machines. It's quite another for a writer, with no vested interest whatsoever, to imply that MLB caused more umpire injuries by imposing "new" standards.