NEW YORK - Baseball umpires filed a grievance against major-league teams Wednesday, charging that the computer system chosen to evaluate them was not reliable.
Umpires also have filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board over management's refusal to provide information about the Questec Umpire Information System. Management lawyers met with the NLRB's general counsel in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the charge. The NLRB has not yet made a decision.
In the grievance, the World Umpires Association said the computer system "is too heavily dependent upon decisions and actions by the Questec ballpark operators." Umpires also said the computer "often incorrectly interprets the strike zone, producing inconsistencies between strike zones from ballpark to ballpark and from day to day in the same ballpark."
In a Feb. 14 letter to the union, management said umpires whose calls do not match Questec at least 90 percent of the time will be judged as not meeting standards.
