One of the chief criticisms of baseball is that it puts people to sleep. It’s slow, it’s boring, nothing happens and the games last forever. That’s what foreigners and Communists say at least - and those people who don’t understand the tension and the passion of a well pitched game. Well here’s a brilliant plan – let’s create a situation where everybody stands around while a group of umpires disappear for ten minutes to watch replays of a disputable home run. So instead of a game taking three and a half hours, by the time everything gets sorted out and play resumes it now takes three hours and forty five minutes. Not what I’d call an effective strategy for speeding up games. I’ve got plenty of ideas for picking up the pace and that’s definitely not one of them.
Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like the idea of getting the call right. I think it’s insane to expect umpires to make a call correctly in seconds from hundreds of feet away watching a tiny white sphere vanish into a sea of thousands of different colored fans. That is expecting way too much when they can barely see things happening right in front of them. I also realize that the system is brand new, so there are going to be kinks to work out. But when we already have to listen to one jerk (in this case the Yankees’ Brian Bruney) accuse the replay process of CAUSING his injury (by forcing him to throw warm up pitch after warm up pitch) it seems like MLB is asking for trouble. I also get a little nervous when I see the Mets involved in replays in three straight games. Is this going to become so common that we see it every day? Do umpires really get these calls wrong that often? I guess I never noticed.
There are other aspects of the replay process that I do think are done correctly. For one, I’m glad they chose to limit the scope to home runs and foul balls. Unlike the NFL or the NBA, it’s always been true that games are decided by the umpires. On a dramatic play at the plate you hope the ump makes the right call. But even if he doesn’t I wouldn’t want to ruin the excitement of that moment by having the call reviewed. I think it’s a slippery slope and I hope we don’t get carried away using replay to solve every disputed call.
Keywords: Umpires
