Craig Calcaterra wonders about measuring mounds after Tony La Russa has a run in with the Rockies’ ground crew:

For one thing, the article notes that Chris Carpenter — who lodged the mound complaint — said that the problem wasn’t the height of the bullpen mound, but the slope. It’s possible for the bullpen mound to be regulation height yet still have the wrong slope due to the whole mound havng a greater diameter or something. I’ve seen umpires measure a mound’s height before — it’s a fairly simple operation involving a stick, a level and a tape measure — but I’ve never seen them measure the slope. It’s not clear from the article, but it doesn’t seem likely that they could have done it, let alone accurately, before Saturday’s game. La Russa is a lawyer by training. Though this often makes him a jerk, it also makes him the detail-oriented guy that he is, and I’m guessing he still wasn’t satisfied on Saturday, maybe for good reason.

I have see them measure slope, and it’s a very simple operation. They have a long measuring stick with a another ruler attached that slides. The mound is supposed to fall off one inch per foot. So they set the main stick on the rubber, make sure it’s level, then move the second measure to every foot marker and make sure the height above the ground is correct. It doesn’t take that long, and back in the 1970’s I remember watching a game where the height of the mound was challenged and they brought out this device to check.