Sorry, Twins apologists: baseball umpiring has never been better

There are several ways to judge the current popularity of a Minnesota sports entity. One of the underrated methods is to monitor the level of excuses being made for a team by the public and media in times of failure.

For instance: P.J. Fleck, the genius manipulator coaching Gophers football, chose three days after the abominable loss at Northwestern to connect any shortcomings (current and future) to the lack of name, image and likeness (NIL) money to bribe players to attend and/or to remain.

A couple of weeks later, after a 42-point loss to Michigan, you could read public comments on websites such as, "What do you expect … Michigan has way more NIL money."

Over in St. Paul, the Wild are just starting, and any shortcomings will be due to a salary cap issue problem created by hockey boss Bill Guerin's buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise in 2021.

It's a beautiful situation. Our NHL team can't lose even when it loses.

The sudden improvement in the Twins' status after ending the 19-year dry spell and winning three playoff games has also paid off with a significant rise on the excuse meter.

Through 100 games or so, as the Twins stumbled along at the top of the woeful American League Central, the bashing of their feeble, strikeout-driven attack was relentless.

I'll admit joining in — breaking out Whiffenpoofs as a nickname around Memorial Day, then switching to the simple but effective TwinKs.

Yet, when it came down to the end on Wednesday night, with Max Kepler taking a pitch a touch inside and Jansen Visconti calling it strike three, Twins Territory was mad at the umpire for missing a pitch by a fraction, and not at Kepler for failing to "protect the plate" — a concept that admittedly has gone the way of the complete game.

Here's a bulletin: the ball-and-strike umpiring is better than it's ever been. That superimposed strike-zone rectangle you see on TV shows a pitch two inches outside and the cry goes out, "How could the ump miss that one?"

A 90-mile-per-hour fastball goes from the pitcher's hand to the plate in four tenths of a second. And more throw 100 mph today than throw 90.

A hitter has to read the ball in that instant 15 times a game. A plate umpire has to do it 250 pitches a game.

Toughest job in sports officiating. No question.

St. Paul's Tim Tschida umpired in the big leagues for 28 years, winding down in 2012. So what's the process for a plate umpire at this highest level?

"You're like a hitter," Tschida said. "You're trying to get the ball out of the hand and track the whole flight. Every pitch is a strike, until it proves not to be. That's because calling a strike a ball is more impactful."

The umpires started being judged electronically in 2002 when the Commissioner's Office installed the QuesTec system in most ballparks.

The Hawk-Eye tracking system is now used — and is likely to be part of a challenge system for balls and strikes in the big leagues very soon.

Until then, you're getting the best plate umpiring ever offered in baseball.

"I'm certain you're right about that," Tschida said. "The correct percentage is off the charts. The reality is, teams have screens all over the dugouts, and they wait for a clunker and start yelling. A hitter gets called out on a 98-mile-an-hour pitch just off the edge and he has his excuse for striking out.

"I ran into Rod Carew at the ballpark last week. I said, 'Rodney, with the pitches you had to hit, and given the pitches that are now called balls, you wouldn't have hit .380. You would've hit .450.' "

MLB is en route to selling the soul of its game — balls and strikes — to the Hawk-Eye system. Fair enough, but don't always believe the strike zone box you see on various telecasts.

"I had dinner with a buddy of mine who had the plate that afternoon for a Mets game," Tschida said. "The Mets had a couple of guys on, a pitch came inside and he called it strike three. They didn't like it.

"Turned out, the Mets telecast had the pitch as a strike. The Cardinals telecast had the pitch as a ball. And MLB had it in the buffer zone for the margin of error.

"Those boxes you see on TV … they are far from perfect."

You might want to make note of that when putting the blame on Jansen Visconti for ending the Twins season.