It’s only fitting after last weeks mess involving replay that Major League Baseball has finally begun the process of looking to expand its role for the 2014 season.
Unfortunately for baseball there was a lesson learned from the fiasco involving umpire Angel Hernandez and that is the umpires on the field won’t review the calls. Instead a system like the NFL has when it comes to scoring plays should get put into place.
Last week Hernandez upheld a double call, even with conclusive evidence that the ball hit by Adam Rosales was a home run. This took away a game tying home run from the Oakland Athletics and a chance to go into extra innings. Making the situation worse is how the umpire handled it after the game and then by Joe Torre.
One question becomes is what calls will get looked at? Right now for MLB the only calls that get looked at are home runs. Now is the opportunity to add fair or foul calls, whether a ball gets caught or not, fan interference and close plays at any base. For example Yesterday New York Mets outfielder Rick Ankiel hit a ball fairdown the left field line off Randy Choate.
The ball hit high off the wall down the left field line, Allen Craig got to the ball quickly and easily threw outAnkiel. Instead the umpires ruled fan interference and since the call couldn’t get replayed, the call stood. No fan made any contact with the ball and it didn’t go out of play and bounce back in. St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny argued to no avail. An example of a call that would have easily been overturned.
Another benefit of having a booth review system is that it won’t take long, the call can get looked at immediately and more importantly managers won’t have to come out to argue the call.
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