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Beyond the grunt: Umpires mic up, and baseball changes a bit

FILE - Home plate umpire Dale Scott signals during the seventh inning of a baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Angels, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, in Detroit. A rule change at the beginning of the season designed to explain on-field call challenges and outcomes introduced umpires’ voices to ballpark speakers, to the fans in their seats and to the world at home for the first time. Scott, now retired, couldn't be more pleased. “I would have loved to have done it," he says. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File) MLB Network's Kelvin Pickens, left, inspects radio and headset for a call on a play review with umpires Cory Blaser, second from left, Edwin Moscoso, right, and Dan Bellino after the first inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Friday, July 22, 2022. After a century and a half of Major League Baseball — after generations of grunts and growls, of muffled shouts and dramatic arm gestures and a cultivated sense of remoteness — something quietly extraordinary happened to the national pastime this year: The umpires began talking to the world. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) Umpire Cory Blaser, second from left, Edwin Moscoso, second from right, and Dan Bellino check their headsets after the first inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Friday, July 22, 2022. A policy change implemented at the beginning of the season, designed to explain on-field call challenges and outcomes, equipped umpires with tiny wireless microphones and — for the first time in baseball history — introduced their amplified voices to ballpark speakers, to the fans in their seats and to the world at home. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) FILE - Umpire Chad Fairchild calls a play review safe during the fourth inning of the second baseball game of a doubleheader between the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Guardians, Monday, July 4, 2022, in Detroit. A rule change at the beginning of the season designed to explain on-field call challenges and outcomes introduced umpires’ voices to ballpark speakers, to the fans in their seats and to the world at home for the first time. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File) Umpire Marvin Hudson, left, makes the call after a review with umpire John Tumpane during the fifth inning of a baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, July 23, 2022, in Detroit. A rule change at the beginning of the season designed to explain on-field call challenges and outcomes introduced umpires’ voices to ballpark speakers, to the fans in their seats and to the world at home for the first time. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) Umpire crew chief Todd Tichenor announces the outcome of a play review during a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins in Pittsburgh, Saturday, July 23, 2022. The notion of hearing a mic'd-up ump's voice explaining something feels oddly revolutionary, even after nearly an entire season of hearing it off and on. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Beyond the grunt: Umpires mic up, and baseball changes a bit