Instant replay is good for sports. And that includes baseball. Don’t spit some crud about contaminating baseball’s tradition, nostalgia or slowing down the game. What about getting it right? What about a preemptive counter to the hostility that follows from what appears to be a blatantly blown call. The argument has been made that instant replay would lengthen games already considered to be too time consuming. When a call is questioned, how much time does a rebutting manager spend conveying his contempt for the umpire’s judgement and his manhood? In that span of time, you could have reviewed and either corrected or sustained a call.
Everyone is in such a hurry to get the games over, like half the fans don’t leave early anyway. If the length of games was such a concern, why not institute a 15-second clock after each pitch. That would reduce the length of the hitter-pitcher stare-downs and would keep pitchers from looking like bobbleheads when they shake off multiple pitches.
While we’re at it, lets put a limit on timeouts each player can call in a game. Give one timeout per player per game and you’ve got your faster pace.
OK, maybe that going a bit far but instant replay would be an instant success if the baseball brass would put aside their outdated mindset and set foot in the 21 st century.
The camera can capture what the eye fails to seize. Humans fail, it’s what they do most of the time. It’s what makes the small successes seem grand and encouraging.
Baseball should put its officials in a position to succeed and instant replay provides that perch. No more rotten grudges spawned from arguments that could be fixed by a simple 15 seconds behind a camera. The impact in the number of ejections, fines and suspensions would be immediate because there’s no disputing what’s on the film. Review it in slow motion all you want, the result doesn’t change.
Instant replay won’t make passing time watching the national pastime any less entertaining.
Major League Baseball umpire Doug Eddings likely wishes he had instant replay at his disposal. His second guess on a called third strike gone awry cost the Los Angeles Angels a Game 2 victory over the White Sox in the American League Championship Series.
Baseball already uses technology to evaluate its umpires’ ability to call ball and strikes. Instant replay, though, shouldn’t be used to change the face of the strike zone or the counts.
Instant replay would best be utilized to clarify calls on the field, decisions that can alter the momentum of an entire playoff series like this year’s ALCS.
A botched home run call, a missed fan interference infraction or a game-ending double play that shouldn’t have been are decisions too vital to the outcome to leave in the hands of human error.
Give the managers the right to challenge calls and spend a few seconds to set everyone at ease.
MLB umpires are the best in the world at what they do but the even the best are not 100 percent. Anything less than 100 percent is unacceptable in Game 7 of the World Series or a Tuesday night game in May.
The majority of MLB fans watch games on television, which gives any couch-ridden Cheetoholic slob a better view of the play than the men in blue.
As long as baseball insists on keeping instant replay out of the game, its officials will continue to be positioned for failure.
Instant replay is a resource all officials in every sport should have access to. A call on the field shouldn’t be a passing review.
Keeping replay out of umpires’ hands is leaving the outcome to the eyes of the beholder. And calls like Eddings’ are certainly sights to behold.
It’s time for baseball to get it right and instant replay is a quick and permanent fix.
Heath Allen is a sports writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times.
Source
Everyone is in such a hurry to get the games over, like half the fans don’t leave early anyway. If the length of games was such a concern, why not institute a 15-second clock after each pitch. That would reduce the length of the hitter-pitcher stare-downs and would keep pitchers from looking like bobbleheads when they shake off multiple pitches.
While we’re at it, lets put a limit on timeouts each player can call in a game. Give one timeout per player per game and you’ve got your faster pace.
OK, maybe that going a bit far but instant replay would be an instant success if the baseball brass would put aside their outdated mindset and set foot in the 21 st century.
The camera can capture what the eye fails to seize. Humans fail, it’s what they do most of the time. It’s what makes the small successes seem grand and encouraging.
Baseball should put its officials in a position to succeed and instant replay provides that perch. No more rotten grudges spawned from arguments that could be fixed by a simple 15 seconds behind a camera. The impact in the number of ejections, fines and suspensions would be immediate because there’s no disputing what’s on the film. Review it in slow motion all you want, the result doesn’t change.
Instant replay won’t make passing time watching the national pastime any less entertaining.
Major League Baseball umpire Doug Eddings likely wishes he had instant replay at his disposal. His second guess on a called third strike gone awry cost the Los Angeles Angels a Game 2 victory over the White Sox in the American League Championship Series.
Baseball already uses technology to evaluate its umpires’ ability to call ball and strikes. Instant replay, though, shouldn’t be used to change the face of the strike zone or the counts.
Instant replay would best be utilized to clarify calls on the field, decisions that can alter the momentum of an entire playoff series like this year’s ALCS.
A botched home run call, a missed fan interference infraction or a game-ending double play that shouldn’t have been are decisions too vital to the outcome to leave in the hands of human error.
Give the managers the right to challenge calls and spend a few seconds to set everyone at ease.
MLB umpires are the best in the world at what they do but the even the best are not 100 percent. Anything less than 100 percent is unacceptable in Game 7 of the World Series or a Tuesday night game in May.
The majority of MLB fans watch games on television, which gives any couch-ridden Cheetoholic slob a better view of the play than the men in blue.
As long as baseball insists on keeping instant replay out of the game, its officials will continue to be positioned for failure.
Instant replay is a resource all officials in every sport should have access to. A call on the field shouldn’t be a passing review.
Keeping replay out of umpires’ hands is leaving the outcome to the eyes of the beholder. And calls like Eddings’ are certainly sights to behold.
It’s time for baseball to get it right and instant replay is a quick and permanent fix.
Heath Allen is a sports writer for the Northwest Arkansas Times.
Source
