My Take On Instant Replay In Baseball - Revisited

In May of 2008, I wrote a post about my opposition to instant replay in baseball. Later that season, MLB instituted instant replay in fair-pole and over-the-wall questions on homeruns. The awful umpiring this past post-season has generated quite a lot of discussion about expanding it. And as tempting is that is, I'm still against it.

• I don't think it'll help. I can't imagine a more convenient way to make the umpires even more complacent. Why bother getting a call right the first time when you can just cue up the film in a minute? The focus really needs to be placed on getting it right the first time, not covering up errors.
  
• It could change the game in play. Umpires signal everything and the course of the play continues depending on the signal they give. If they go back and change the call later, the play is dead and the potential for something unexpected is gone.
  
• Where does this end? Ok, so MLB caves into pressure and allows replays of fair/foul balls down the line. Then what? Safe/out? Ball/strike? If we let it go too far, we may as well all just buy PlayStation games and play each other. We should enjoy the human factor that makes baseball different than other sports.
  
• People are already complaining about the time. So many people I know claim they would be baseball fans but it's just so slow. (I always think 'yeah right' when they say that.) There are so many unnecessary delays as it is: delayed starting times and starts of half innings due to tv time, batters stepping out of the box 89 million times a game, "time" called every 13.2 seconds, pitchers stepping off, pick-off attempts, visits to the mound, blah, blah, blah. Why would we want to add more delays?
• It would be technologically expensive. Even though most games are televised, they're not nationally televised, so they simply don't have the camera coverage to pull it off during the regular season. Yeah, it's kind of a lame reason, but I still think it counts.

With all that being said, I do agree that teams, players, and fans deserved better than what they got this post-season. These umpires were awful and they really need to be more accountable for their horrible performances. However, I don't think that un-doing mistakes is the answer; avoiding them to begin with is. I don't really have any great ideas to improve the situation. After all, they're real guys just trying to do their jobs. I don't know if fining or reprimanding them would help. Maybe they could implement some sort of monthly performance reviews and only allow the best umpires to even think about the playoffs. I don't know -- they probably do have something like that.

I do realize that I'm one of about four people on the planet who feels this way. I'm interested to find out what other fans think. Let me know your opinion.

Embarrassing Much?

Seriously? Did that really just happen? You mean this stinking awful rotten series wasn't a horrible nightmare? Yikes.

Recap:
Monday: Do you even want to know? Ugly ugly ugly.
Tuesday: Twins 3 - A's 2
Wednesday: Even uglier than Monday's

Ok, so it's over. Put it in the past.

Besides, I don't have anything to say that wouldn't be incredibly depressing or offensive (Hi Mom!). So I'll just leave it alone.

~~~

Well, wait. I do want to say something about the series. I have some thoughts about The Play. You know The Play -- the one at home plate with Cuddyer, and the bad call, and the resulting punch in the proverbial gut? Well, I don't actually want to talk about The Play; I want to talk about The Fallout From The Play.

Gardy wants baseball to adopt a "red flag" ruling like football has -- a way to announce to the officials that the manager begs to differ with the call and would like them to take a look at the film. I don't agree. Nope, not at all.

I'm against instant-replay, and I have been for a long time. I am willing to tolerate the current homerun-or-not-fair-or-foul replay baseball has -- there aren't umpires at the fair poles, and it might be hard to see that far away. However, I really can't stand the thought of any more possible instances.

I know the idea of IR is to "get the call right." However, there is every reason to believe that a play at home plate, where an umpire resides the whole game, will be called correctly 99.9% of the time. In this particular case, the umpire was out of position to make a good call. His bad. Yeah, I'm mad at him, and he should probably be disciplined for the gaffe, but in reality, he screwed up -- nothing more. And nothing more should be made of it. Who hasn't messed up the job? (No, please don't ask my boss if I have. He might enjoy relating those stories too much.)

It's understandable to react like Gardy did. But the true test would be to ask him if the tables were turned and we WON on a blown call, would he feel the same way. I can't speak for him, but I kind of doubt it.

~~~

Keeping Up on the Bull Pen Revolving Door:

After Wednesday's game, Kevin Mulvey was sent down and Jesse Crain was called back up.

Oh, it sounds like Joe Crede and/or Glen Perkins might land on the DL. There seems to be a shoulder virus going around.

Who's In Charge? (My Take on Instant Replay in Baseball)

MLB is considering implementing instant replay to assist with questionable homerun calls, and plans are to give it a try in the Arizona Fall League. Last December during the Winter Meetings, the General Managers voted 25-5 in favor of recommending it for "boundary calls". Everyone is talking about it again now because of a couple of so-called "blown" calls in the New York market (it's questionable whether there would be the ado if they had happened here in fly-over country). And because those calls have been replayed over and over in a 24/7 barrage, many will insist that everyone continues to talk about it.

While I'm not really against instant replay in these particular cases -- we all know of times when legitimate home runs were ruled as foul balls because the umpires couldn't tell which side of the foul pole the ball flew past -- I'm not a fan of the path that allowing any instant replay goes down. If this happens, it would be the first time that technology is allowed to actually change the game rather than merely enhance it.

Because virtually every game is televised, players today use replays to scout opponents or improve their own game. However, when he's between the lines, a player still must make his pitches or put the bat on the ball all by himself. Improving the performance of the individual athletes is a far different matter than forcing the game to conform to a television-ruled world with its all-mighty dollar. Baseball fans are already subjected to goofy start times and elongated half-inning changeovers because of the demands of television advertising.

Baseball itself isn't well suited to allow technology to dictate outcomes because it seems to celebrate its own quirkiness. This is a game that doesn't even want a clock to tell everyone when the game is over. Heck, there aren't even standards for the size or shape of the field of play as long as the bases are 90 feet apart and the pitcher's mound is 60 feet 6 inches away from home. And nothing happens unless human umpires or scorekeepers say it does (ball or strike? pitch or balk? safe or out? hit or error? fair or foul?). So forcing a drastic change in the way a game is called, simply because fans can second-guess the calls the next morning, seems counter-intuitive.