The Major Leagues of Gaslighting

Baseball umpires do not make sense, especially now, in the AI era. Every season that passes makes this more clear, and every season no one does anything about it.

The current reality is:

  • Umpires blatantly miss calls all the time.

  • Some even have a reputation for it.

  • When this happens... there is no recourse. The decision is final.

Why are these calls decisive and final! We have multiple camera angles and slow motion in stunning 4k. On video review nearly every bad call can be definitively corrected with this technology. The MLB knows this, and the telecasts dissect these calls in seconds, in real time! Meanwhile, the MLB is content to let mistakes happen, and do nothing to correct them.

It gets worse! The coach or a player must voice their disagreement with these calls, they have no other choice. It's their job, these are athletes, they must have that competitive fire. And when they do, in most cases, the umpire will eject them! Which means, the umpire makes the mistake, and then punishes the player? Are we just paying to watch millionaires get gaslighted on TV? That's baseball now apparently, that's the real game.

Baseball umpires are the closest thing we have to politicians outside of Washington in many ways.

  • They are inherently flawed

  • They cannot be challenged

  • Once they're in, it is near impossible to get them out

  • They get paid a lot of money to be bad at their job

  • Everyone knows its a problem, and just ignores it

Now, just recently, in 2025 spring training, the MLB tested an automated ball-strike system. Ultimately, they used it to supplement the umps in place. A batter could challenge a call, and if it was a confirmed bad call, it was reversed and they kept the challenge. Only two challenges per team. This is fine, but here's the thing. We're ceding authority to the tracking system to make the call. This being the case, it's clear. Umps no longer need to bother calling pitches.

I think it’s time to move on from umpires, nothing ruins a sport more than knowing that incompetence played a bigger role in the game than the players.


via Umpire Auditor - X


I used to do more of this.

2025. I didn’t make any New Years Resolutions. I have recently started feeling the faint desire to rekindle my diminished friendship with music. For years I have referred to my musician days as “a past life”. I acknowledge that it existed, but if I’m being honest, I never liked that version of me.

My career took a pointed turn when my computer and problem solving skills took over. I consider myself lucky to have fallen backwards into such a fitting place.

I do have a knack for music, and I have had a long and strange relationship with it that, frankly, I wouldn’t expect anyone to understand. I have, on occasion tried to explain it to people, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that there is a perspective there that only few have.

That subject could probably end up becoming a book. Perhaps another day. At any rate, I kind of want to make it a goal to kind of make a do-over with music. I still have all of the knowledge. Theory, Tech, Chops, etc. I can play music. The next step would be to make music. In the later years of my previous life, I recorded an album with an incredible guitar player which had a lot of promise. As those things usually do, it fizzed out. It would be fun to take that approach again, but in a less pressure filled environment. Who knows, maybe actually try to have fun with it? A lot to unpack there I guess.

Well. If nothing else, it helped to talk through this with myself here. Some inspiration - based on the concert I went to the other day.



Cool Times

My friend Brandon texted me last week and said, “Hey, want to go see Ben Folds tomorrow?”, I said, yeah that would be awesome. And so we did. I got to see him on a makeup date for his “Paper Airplane Requests” show. I requested my fave, “Not the same”, but alas he didn’t get to that one. He did play so many great songs though, and even told stories about each of them beforehand. A bonus, he made up a song about the classic PA commercial “1-877-Kars-4-Kids”. If you live in PA and listen to radio, you’ve heard it. An awesome time, and so glad I got to see him live at least once.

I completed the Lego Natural History Museum set this week. What a cool build. The third set I’ve done in the modular line, this one was bigger, and had some cool story lines, though lacked a bit of detail that some of the other modulars have. Though I’ve only built three of them, the Tudor Corner is still by far the coolest lego set I’ve built to this point. It had so many cool details, and a unique layout that really put it over the top.

Beside catching my annual cold that sidelined me for a few days, this week is shaping up to be ok.