As you know, MLB has been considering implementing instant replay in baseball games for disputed home run calls. They had intended to begin the experiment after the regular season, during winter ball in the Grapefruit League.
You know, to work out the bugs and such.
Now MLB is considering starting this fresh hell in the 2008 season.
In August.
When every team is getting playoff fever.
When every pitch is critical.
Am I the last person who still thinks this is a bad idea?
And it's not that I am against every change in baseball; I think inter-league play is a good thing. And I do like the idea of the Wild Card in the playoffs. And awarding World Series home field advantage to the winning league in the All-Star game is novel and has made the game much more important. (Though I was always a fan of the All-Star games for the non-seriousness of it and the enjoyment of watching players compete in a whole new way).
People who already don't like baseball say that the game is "boring" and "moves too slowly".
Instant Replay will make the game even slower.
And where does Replay stop?
What's next..reviewing plays at the plate? Sure, why not? Replays at first base on disputed calls of out or safe? Why not? Balls and Strikes? Why not? Once Replay is implemented it will NEVER GO AWAY... kinda like taxes and toll booths.
Listen up Bud Selig!!! I have a radical but low tech solution for this.
I know it sounds crazy but... here goes:
Hire two more umpires per game.
One each down the foul lines at the walls.
And their only job is to make the call on home run balls. The current configuration puts the first base and third base umps at a huge disadvantage trying to make calls on hits that they can't even see well.
Please Bud. I know Baseball can afford to hire two more sets of eyes per game.
Before you go dickin' around with the world's greatest sport, before you start trying to improve a game that is already nearly perfection, please consider using more of the very thing that makes Baseball great:
Humans.
3 comments:
"We don't need no
stinking instant replay?"
Well, ahem.....
Ya already have it! Every announcer uses it on radio and
tv after EVERY questionable or disputed call. Everyone
watching a game on tv SEES instant replays -- especially
the hosed calls over and over and over if the call was
REALLY botched.
So if everyone else who is watching or LISTENING to a
game has access to instant replay, why shouldn't it
be available to use in settling a disputed or outright
BAD call by an ump? Hell, even HE sees it on the stadium
videotron if he's got the balls to watch his own screwup. Two MORE umps? I won't even go there.
Ya wanna keep the game "human"? Reel in these arrogant and
grandstanding umps and their union a little more to make
em accountable for being downright bad sometimes instead
of allowing them to continue thinking the game is somehow
about them when it isn't.
If you know an umpire's name (and it's not because he's been
a great one for 20 years?), he's probably a bad one who NEEDS
some reeling in for the good of the game, or a dead one.
To me, it's all about fairness in the game however it gets
applied. The fans deserve it. The players deserve it. The
game deserves it. And while I'd agree that technology could indeed
infiltrate the game if not kept in
check, the use of instant replay for boundary related calls is long
overdue and would take less time than it takes the manager to make his argument and get thrown out because HE WAS RIGHT, or the time
it takes for the umps to huddle and
decide THEY'RE WRONG and still let
a bad call stand.
All the above stated, the game will survive anything because
it's the greatest game on the planet. It's BASEBALL.
And just like Mother Earth herself ensuring the game of nature
and planet survival, baseball is the ONLY other one where the
DEFENSE has the ball. They'll both still be here long after
we're gone for that reason alone -- instant replay, or not.
It doesn't get much more pure than that!
Go Tribe!
Not no, but HELL no! Baseball and apple pie, that's us. So now will we start having Mom's apple pie analyzed for ingredients - a tad too much sugar or a few too many apples. Leave the game alone.
Where does instant replay end? It ends wherever you want it to! Lay down clear rules and make sure that everyone knows them and their role in the process and in a few minutes a good call will be made.
Instead of taking up time to have the manager yell and scream about a bad call, they can quietly sit on the bench after requesting a review. But...they only get two possible challenges. There's your human element! The manager's can decide what they feel is worth fighting for and then they will just have to accept any other bad calls.
The human element is already there. The players should be the ones to decide the outcome of the game by their play on the field. If they throw wildly to first, then the runner may get an extra base. If they strike out then they may leave a runner on base. If a player is out at first, then they should be called out. If it takes a couple minutes to review the play to give them what they are due, then do it!
Don't let the umpire decide the outcome. They should simply be there to make sure that the game is played fairly, much like a judge make sure a defendant gets a fair trial in a court of law.
Would you not want everything that should legally becoming back to you on your taxes? Of course, because you deserve it! All I am saying is give the players what they deserve.
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