Time for more instant replay in baseball

We’ve all heard the lesson stressed as the world continually changes: You must adapt to new technology and use it to enhance not only your livelihood, but your career.

Apparently, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig missed the memo.

An in-depth instant replay system could greatly benefit his sport, but Selig refuses to implement such technological advancements.

Every sport experiences controversial calls that could go either way. Referees have to make instantaneous decisions on these extremely difficult calls, leading to many of them being judged incorrectly.

Viewers at home have the benefit of seeing the replay in super slow motion a billion times, making the decision on their part usually quite easy.

So why doesn’t baseball give their umpires the same advantage?

MLB added a minor replay system in 2008, but it allows only the review of potential home run situations.

The system must be expanded more than that.

The NFL, for example, has taken the correct steps by automatically reviewing every scoring or change-of-possession play.

In addition, coaches can challenge up to three times in every game, and the upstairs booth can challenge anything with the two-minute warning.

The NBA has also taken initiative. This coming season, additional rules will allow officials to review flagrant fouls, charges/blocking fouls and goaltending late in games to ensure the correct call was made.

Even professional tennis allows competitors to challenge an official’s call. When this happens, everyone in the stadium can instantly see whether a ball was in or out through the high-tech Hawk-Eye Officiating system that uses multiple cameras and radar.

And yet, baseball reviews only home runs.

I don’t think the sport needs a machine calling balls and strikes, but what about fair/foul calls? Catches? Whether a runner was safe or out? Or even (I’m sure Atlanta Braves fans will appreciate this) infield fly calls?

There are two major opposing views to this proposition.

First, many say the more replay you do, the longer games will take.

This isn’t necessarily true. Look at how the NFL handles automatic reviews of
scoring plays and turnovers. The head referee doesn’t run to the replay booth to check the play himself. Instead, an official with a television and unlimited replay access radios to him says, “Yep, that was a catch,” or, “Reverse it. He was down by contact.”

Most fans don’t realize it’s happening due to the speed at which the system works.

Baseball could do the same thing, with the home-plate umpire only needing to signal to somebody in an office and get the result in a matter of seconds.

Plus, with undisputable video evidence making the calls, the five-minute shouting sessions between managers and umpires after every controversial call would be eliminated.

The second beef some have with a replay system is that it takes away the human element of the game, the way baseball has always been.

The worst reason not to change something is because that’s the way it’s always been.

If everyone lived by that mentality, we’d still be riding around on horses for transportation and hunting for food every day.

As for the human element, that’s all well and dandy, but tell that to former Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. Had it not been for a blown call by Jim Joyce, Galarraga would be one of only 24 pitchers to ever throw a perfect game.

He’s said all the right things since then and remained incredibly classy about the situation, but deep down it kills him not to have that perfect game on his résumé when it should be.

Everyone knows he has it, but the record books will forever say otherwise.
And you can’t really blame Joyce or any umpire. With everything happening so fast, you’re bound to miss some calls sooner or later.

It’s time for baseball to implement an advanced system right away. Don’t even wait until next season. For all we know, this year’s World Series could be wrongly decided on a blown call.

Sadly, that might be what it takes to get something
going.

Don’t be reactive, Selig. Be proactive. Make the right call.

­— tlstutzm@indiana.edu