View Single Post
  #12 (permalink)  
Old Tue Oct 12, 2004, 12:47pm
JJ JJ is offline
Veteran College Umpire
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: IN
Posts: 1,122
I smile when discussions of instant replays in baseball are brought up. Ten years ago I umpired a TV game, Purdue vs. Indiana, and had first base. Shortstop fields one up the middle, wheels and throws to the right field side of first base. I banged the runner and the IU coach came out to discuss the call. The discussion was uneventful, but since the game was televised regionally by Fox Sports, I got a copy of the tape. Upon review, angle #1 had me dead wrong. Angle #2 was unclear, and angle #3 showed I was right without a doubt. How many camera angles will a reviewer have to look at and still be proven wrong from a different angle? Perhaps a home run fair/foul, but beyond that, whew! Face it - umpires are right an unbelievable amount of the time (in my case, anyway ). Replays would really slow down a game that pundits say is already too slow to be consistently entertaining (what do THEY know!).