Instant Replay, the instant replay

Ryan’s written about this already, so consider this an instant replay of the previous mentioned subject, but from a different angle.

Commissioner Bud Selig has been long trying to find ways to speed up the game. The games run a long time, and aren’t filled with the intense action of football and hockey, where players are running into each other, knocking each other down, and in general putting themselves in harm’s way constantly. (Minnesota Twins apparently play the fastest games in the majors, but there are some nights they need to speed things up, too.)

Like Ryan mentioned, part of baseball’s charm is the human element. Some days, the strike zone is just a tiny keyhole. Other days, the strike zone is so big, you could fly a 747 through it. As a fan, this doesn’t bother me–as long as it’s consistent for both sides. It’s not fair giving Greg Maddux a strike zone big enough to drive a truck through, while his opponent has a strike zone the size of a Matchbox car. It’s frustrating to see a location called a strike for one pitcher, and a ball for the other. I have an acquaintance who would like to see balls and strikes called mechanically–the technology exists to do that, but no. I’m not in favor of that.

So, instant replay. There are multiple times it could be used. I listen to the radio at the ballpark, and have friends at home who are watching on TV. It’s very frustrating to be sitting there after a player has been called out attempting to steal and thinking, “he looked safe to me”, and hear from the radio, or from friends, “he was safe.” It can change the course of the game. Instead of a runner on second with no outs, there are no runners on with one out.

When a ball is hit down the line, and the umpire gets turned around, he has to make the best call he can from what he sees. He has to decide if the ball went over first in fair or foul territory. When a batter checks his swing, the first or third base umpire has to decide whether he truly checked it, or failed to check it. When a ball is hit towards the stands, should fan interference be called, or was the ball out of play? When a ball is hit close to the foul pole, was it a home run or a “long strike”? For that matter, did the pitcher really commit a balk or not? And was that ball really caught on the fly or did it bounce as the fielder dived for it? (A couple of years ago, Torii Hunter was nominated for some fan-based vote award–best outfielder or something. The video they had to highlight his skills showed clearly that the ball bounced before he caught it, but the umpire called it caught. A day later, mlb.com picked a different video where Hunter actually did make a catch.)

When should instant replay be made available to the umpires? I’m in favor of never. Just let the umpire make the call, and move on. They’ll get it wrong. And it will be annoying and frustrating every time. However, sometimes they’ll get it wrong against the team you’re cheering for, and sometimes they’ll get it wrong in favor of the team you’re rooting for.

The main reason I don’t want it for anything is because once you allow something, it makes it easy to allow more. Today, we’re allowing instant replay on home runs (which might not be a bad idea). Two years from now, someone will argue that it’s needed on base-stealing calls. And some day in the future, umpires will all be sitting in their homes, watching the games on TV making the calls, and the fans in the stands will have to await every call to be announced on the JumboTron. That will take all the fun out of booing the umpire when he doesn’t make the call in my favor…

Speed the game up. Let the umpires make the calls as they see best, accept that they’re humans and they’ll make mistakes, and move on.