Keep replay out of baseball!
We all know there were some extremely questionable calls and some flat out blown calls in the most crucial of situations in this year’s MLB playoffs.
It started with Joe Mauer’s double down the left-field line that was called foul in the ALDS; it was clearly fair, by a mile! Then there was the double play that wasn’t in the ALCS when both Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano were tagged at third base and neither was exactly touching the bag.
There were many more examples of poor calls made under the microscope of playoff baseball that raised the question: Does baseball need to expand instant replay?
I am here to plead with you Bud Selig. PLEASE do not ruin the Great American Pastime!
I am a firm believer that more instant replay will defile the game that we have all come to know and love. We already have replay for questionable home run calls, just leave it at that.
Most casual sports fans constantly complain that baseball is too boring to watch. As a die-hard baseball fan, and former player, I will be the first to admit that there are a plethora of dull moments in between brief spurts of high intensity. There is no skirting around the fact: baseball involves a lot of down time.
So why slow down a slow game even more? There will always be fans of baseball, past and present, but more replay is bound to alienate many and force the casual fan to change the channel during a 10-minute replay timeout. It will ruin one of the aforementioned high-intensity moments, which brings me to my next point.
Instant replay changes the game too much. Baseball is unique in that one crucial play can change the momentum drastically. How can a team or player gain that advantage when a momentum-shifting play must first be reviewed for 10 minutes?
Baseball is also the sport we can rely on for frequent ejections of players and managers. I know everybody enjoys an occasional base toss by Lou Piniella or a hat slam by Bobby Cox. But how can these managers argue with the all-powerful umpires when a bad call is immediately fixed?
Replay would eliminate those silly moments when pitchers actually get to hit, taking their frustrations out on the defenseless water coolers. It would rob Milton Bradley of chances to throw entire buckets of baseballs onto the playing field, and even avoid him from tearing his ACL while attacking an ump.
Advancements in video and camera technology have allowed us to evaluate sports action in ultra slow motion. Plays that unfold in realtime in a matter of seconds are now at our disposal in frame-by-frame segments. This doesn’t necessarily mean that baseball needs to use this technology to fix every questionable call.
Bad calls are just part of the game, bottom line. Making the move to more instant replay will open the floodgates. Where will the lines be divided between human judgment and computer-generated boundaries? Replay could eventually make umpires unnecessary.
In my mind, baseball has always been a way to escape from reality, a way to relax and enjoy the simplicity of the greatest game the world has to offer. In a world dependent on technology, baseball can continue to stand alone if we let it.
KFFLians think:
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I respectfully disagree. There are ways it can be done that would not take forever. I’d rather have a correctly called game than a fast game. Replays shouldn’t be plentiful; maybe even only limited to playoff games and once per game per team.
Umpires have a hard job but they have brought on this revolt with their repeatedly poor performance in spotlight games.
I think managers should have a chance to get bad calls reversed. Bad calls are a problem, not a tradition to uphold. I agree that too many replay challenges would hurt the game, but I think there would be a way to pull off instant replay without disrupting the flow of the game too often. Managers should have one challenge per series. If they turn out to be right, they would still get to keep that one until they get one wrong in that series. That way, only the most obvious and/or important calls would be reviewed. It would add a new and interesting wrinkle to game management. Everything would be fair game except for the strike zone, which would be terrible because it would change the game too drastically.
hmmm…agree and disagree…hard call
you make good points…
whats next, the strike zone?
I agree. Baseball is slow enough and the bad calls by the umpires and the drama they spark between managers is one of the reason people watch the game. It is a signature part of the game of baseball. Keep it old school.