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Pete,
1. People learn more about baseball rules from TV than they ever would from the UIC of a local amateur game. I think it would be far more productive for us to contact the networks and demand that they hire rules experts to pass along information to the masses. Instead, the public is pelted with misinformation from former ball players who have never known the rules of the game that they made millions playing. These former-ball-players-turned-announcers do more damage to baseball rules ignorance than anything else.
2. 3-1/2 hour ball games now, and Pete wants to add instant replay? Need I comment?
3. Pete, pro umpires DO meet and discuss certain rulings and certain calls. The reason that they don't meet more often is in the design of the game. Papa C. gave us a list of all the calls that can be changed during a game. This was no arbitrary list. It is a well-thought out, time-proven list of all the incidences when the design of the game allows for a changed call. If it's not on the list, there is a good reason why it cannot be changed.
Football allows for crew meetings and group decisions. Baseball does not always allow for this. Baseball is unique in that umpires make calls during play which affect subsequent play. Football officials don't have to decide safe or out NOW, and players in football are not dependent on the official's call for subsequent action.
It is impossible to do what you propose. The design of baseball does not allow for it.
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Jim Porter
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