In the era of sabermetrics and advanced statistics, the SABR revolution finds itself seeping into umpiring. One of the leaders in this avenue is the website CloseCallSports.com. That website is run by Gil Imber and we talk with him on Episode 14 of the UmpTalk Podcast.
Close Call Sports is a website that tracks umpire ejections but also allows the community to analyze close calls in not just baseball but all sports.
The site works to analyze controversial events objectively, but also introduces a big element of fun as well. It is a great website to visit for umpires, baseball fans and wanna-be rulebook lawyers. The centerpiece to the website is an “Umpire Fantasy League” which tracks ejections of umpires, assigns scores to those ejections and allows players to get points according to how their “umpire team” does. The league also awards points for correct applications of rules as well as case studies.
We talk with Gil about how the website started and his own umpiring background as well as some of the more controversial posts on his website.
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Show Notes:
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