Just five years ago, I wondered if MLB would ever implement instant replay.
But in 2008, MLB finally caved into public pressures and approved replays for home runs.
Still, this type of replay doesn’t pertain to the plays the MLB is receiving complaints about, especially considering the average MLB team hits just one home run per game in the regular season.
What infuriates most fans is when the ordinary safe or out call is blown.
Remember in 2010 when umpire Jim Joyce ended Armando Galarraga’s perfect game by incorrectly calling the runner safe at first with one out left to get?
It cost Galarraga his perfect game, but with replay, the call could have been corrected and Galarraga would have been awarded the perfect game.
Now, in the 2012 postseason, more blown calls have transpired. Given the fact that MLB has caved to public and media pressures before, additional instant replay is inevitable.
The first and most likely change is to allow safe and out calls to be challenged. In Game 2 of the ALCS, the umpire made a poor tag call at second base against the Yankees.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi told reporters after Game 2, “Let's have instant replay. And not just home run fair (or) foul (calls). Let's have instant replay…In this day and age there is too much at stake, and the technology is available. That's what our country has done. We have evolved technology to make things better.”
In the NL wild-card game, an infield-fly rule was called in the outfield grass late despite the fielder having no idea where the ball was, potentially costing the Braves the win in an elimination game.
An infield-fly is probably a judgment call and not subject to replay, just like a holding penalty in football is not reviewable and a reach-in foul in basketball isn’t either.
Even if that play is not reviewable, the officiating blunder places an asterisk on the integrity of the game.
MLB’s archaic, but current, stance against additional replay is that replay will slow down the game. My question is: how long do replays take? Based on previous experiences I would estimate a minute, maybe two, if the call were close.
How much time is wasted when a manager comes out to vehemently argue a call and subsequently get thrown out of the game? Add on the fact that a manager almost never gets a call reversed on an argument, and the team losing their leader for the rest of the game, and it’s clear the current model isn’t working.
In addition, most at-bats take at least as long as a replay considering how many times the batter steps out and re-enters the batter’s box, and how often he calls for time just before the next pitch.
When your team is not playing, baseball can feel slow. Adding more replay isn’t going to drastically turn every game into a four-hour marathon.
MLB doesn’t need to review every call, because if they end up reviewing balls and strikes, the games will in fact take the extended four-plus hours. What it needs to do is give each manager a challenge flag, like they do in the NFL.
If the manager’s challenge is successful, then he gets to keep the flag and continues challenging calls, but if he misses a couple challenges, then that privilege is revoked for the game.
That’s the NFL’s model and it works effectively. Replay is used extensively in the NFL, college football and the NBA, and fans still watch these games in masses, and rarely are complaints heard about game speed.
Replay is not perfect — see the Seahawks-Packers Monday Night Football game earlier this year — but more often than not, replay leads to more correct calls than without replay.
It’s not a matter of how long it takes, it’s a matter of getting the call right. That’s what MLB fans want to see – the correct call being made.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Janssen@asu.edu
