It is now Time for instant replay
 

Forget about traditionalism in baseball. There has already been many changes ie; Lowering of the pitching mound; the DH, interleague play; winner of All Star game determining home field advantage for the World Series; smaller ball parks , etc.

We have now seen or heard of what I thought was a no brainer meaning when the ball is called Foul it's Foul. Yesterday MLB set a precident by reversing a Foul call to fair.

Ok what does all this mean.

If the umpires can take the time to meet as a group and change calls, then why not allow a coach to "challenge" ala football certain calls. The rule would probably have to be "tweaked" but for starters allow a coach 2 challenges per game. The tricky part would be determining what kind of penalty should the coach loose. In football a time out (which can be very valuable) is taken away.

ALL Sports even the individual sports (golf, tennis) now use replay. You say "Golf" but Golf has used replay before to assess penalty strokes to players.

Baseball needs to get out of the dark ages and use IR. Yesterdays call IMO was a very good case to use Replay.

One might say The game is already 3 hours and change long, but in reality when there is a controversial call, the manager will request Time and the umpires hudle and all this takes several minutes so why not use replay to begin with.

If the premise is "to get the call right" then why not use replay to "get the call right". IMO the MLB umpires association "got the ball" rolling by their recent actions.

Let's see what happens

Pete Booth

Sometimes it's just better, Pete, to let people suspect you are an idiot, than to type such drivel and remove all doubt.

Pete, with all due respect, what a pile of BS!

Sorry Pete, with all due respect, IR has no place in baseball.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve Pete, with all due respect, what a pile of BS!

I bet many said the same thing when baseball first introduced the DH yet here it is to stay.

You as well as others have your opinion and while it might sound like a pile of BS so did many of the things that baseball has done over the years yet it is what it is.

Pete Booth

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Stop it Pete, (giggle) you're killing me.(snort) Instant replay...(chuckle). You're the funniest, man.

You were kiddin' right?

I think reply should be used only for fair/foul homerun situations and when a fan interferes with a ball that maybe a homerun or a double.

Baseball has just too many close plays that would be challenged. Every steal, check swing appeal, batted ball bounding past first/third, catch/no catch... the list goes on and on.

Football has very few comparatively speaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcrowder Sometimes it's just better, Pete, to let people suspect you are an idiot, than to type such drivel and remove all doubt.

This is against my better judgement as I don't normally respond to posts with name calling as I do not really care what people think etc. but let's make some assumptions here.

Let's go back to the "golden age of baseball" and we had an internet Forum and I posted the following.

Wouldn't it be great if baseball adopted a DH for F1 and we split the divisions so that we have wild card teams etc. etc.

The response to that Post "back in the day" would be received the way my post is being received, yet look what happend.

Regardless of what you or other posters think about IR, eventually baseball will have some form of it. It's happened in other sports and baseball will eventually "cave in" ESPECIALLY if the Players union vote it in.

Therefore when baseball finally adopts some form of replay what will you say then.

Pete Booth

What do you want us to say?
"Boy, that Pete sure was smart."
"Yep, he was the only one ever to think instant replay was coming to baseball"
"Fer sure, and now that its here, ya know something? It's freaking great!"

Look, Pete, I don't think many believe baseball will never approve some form of IR. However, that doesn't make it a good thing.

MLB approved of the increasing use of the huddle to "get the call right". That doesn't make it a good thing. As often as not, it gets the call wrong.

So in short, when it comes, you won't be the oracle, just another fan supporting a bad idea.

Mr. Booth, Like a good umpire you will have to learn to ignore the comments and name calling here. If you are called 'ridiculous' or 'stupid' etc. etc you can consider it a badge of honor. Many of these gentlemen are in some other baseball world.
Of course, IR will be used in baseball...someday. and it will be properly limited. But yesterday's situation is not a case-in-point. It is not clear that they got it right at all. The is no single still frame which shows the ball in touch with the bag. In fact, there is some dirt kick up in one that suggests maybe Marsh was right...even tho he was 'distracted'. LOL.
But even had the TV showed the ball fair, there is no way to 'fairly and reasonably' reconstruct the situation which might have been .

Uh, that would be, let's see......you.:eek:

Lets say, for instance that as Pete has prophesized, IR comes into being.

What's next o' great oracle of the diamond?

Umpires on the field disappear, to be replaced by cameras and machines? Questec is already impacting the way umpires call games at those fields where it is installed. The Outside corner is gone at those fields.

How bout on that close tag play at the plate, let's wait 30 seconds to 2 minutes while the play is debated on whether he was out or safe at the plate.

Or how bout that "in-the-vicinity" front end of the double play, did he touch the bag while in posession of the ball or did he miss it?

How bout that whacker over at 1st, did he pull his foot or not. Could you slip a piece of paper between his foot and the bag to determine if he was on or off the bag.

I'm not saying that IR will be good or bad, however, there is so much "percieved" grey area by unknowlegable fans that you could loose the human element of the sport.

Besides, if you take away the umpires and their ability to show they are human and capable of mistakes, who are the fans going to yell and chirp at? The camera guy because he couldn't move the camera fast enought or focus enough on the play to make the decision easier?

Pete never said that he wanted it used for every call. The NFL doesn't let them use it to reverse a holding call, you are just being stupid here. All Pete is saying is it is time for MLB to use some type of IR, of course only in certain situations. We all agree we don't want to take the human element of umpires out of the game.

How bout on that close tag play at the plate, let's wait 30 seconds to 2 minutes while the play is debated on whether he was out or safe at the plate.

What do you think is happening now without IR.

On a close play at the plate where one of the players (F2 or the runner) thinks that they ABSOLUTELY made the play and the PU sees it different.

Here comes the manager (especially if it's Lou Pinella) and at least 5 minutes or longer go by and then someone gets tossed.

IR IMO might actually shorten the game instead of having the manager / players go on and on like the energizer bunny before they are finally tossed.

Also, I never said ALL plays be reviewed. The manager would gte a limit of challenges per game.

The only exception would be on a HR ruled Fair/ Foul or if it indeed was a HR or not. In those instances it would be an automatic review similar to football in the last 2 minutes of the game.

IMO, MLB umpires "opened up the flood gates" with their supposedly new found philosophy on "getting the call right" at all costs. If the umpires "left things alone" then this talk of IR might not come up.

In the last several years we have seen umpires huddle more then they ever did. Over-Turning one another without even being asked etc. So IMO it's the umpires themselves that are causing the problem. Not only are they causing a problem for themselves but look at what they are doing for us amateurs.

You can pretty much bet next year some coach will ask us to change a Foul call to fair.

Pete Booth