As reported by ESPN:
After losing out on a clear home run ball Sunday for the second time this season, the New York Mets might become the newest proponents of Major League Baseball instituting instant replay.
In Sunday’s Subway Series finale, a Carlos Delgado fly ball down the left field line was ruled a three-run home run for the Mets by third base umpire Mike Reilly. After Yankees captain Derek Jeter argued, home plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled Reilly and called the ball foul.
Davidson readily admitted his mistake to reporters after the game.
“I (expletive) it up. I’m the one who thought it was a (expletive) foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I’m the one who (expletive) it up so you can put that in your paper,” Davidson said. “Bolts and nuts, I (expletive) up. You’ve just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do.”
The home run did not end up factoring in the outcome of the game as the Mets routed the Yankees 11-2.
Mets manager Willie Randolph argued the call to no avail, but it was bench coach Jerry Manuel who ended up being ejected from the game.
“That’s what bench coaches do,” Randolph told reporters. “The ump told me to shut up and he was looking to bait someone. I wasn’t going to argue with him, but Jerry took the bait. Thanks, Jerry.”
Manuel explained his actions after the game.
“I had the benefit of the replay,” Manuel told New York Newsday. “I thought at that point we were still kind of frustrated with the call. [Davidson] seemed to be frustrated with the call as well.”
As far as instant replay, baseball general managers voted 25-5 last winter to explore ways to use it in games, according to the New York Daily News.
Earlier this season, Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran called for instant replay after his April 2 home run in Miami in the team’s third game this season was overruled and called a double.
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26 Comments
Replay for HRs or on other grounds rules make sense. On balls and strikes, plays at bases leave it alone. The games are slow enough as it is.
I agree scoop, they definitely need it for home run/no home run or foul/fair calls. Thats it! Imagine you had to watch some fat ump huddled under a movie camera for ten minutes to decide whether a bang bang play at first was safe or out? People already think our pasttime is too slow!!! But on a play like last night where the naked eye simply cant tell what happens you need it.
Hey John, can you or any other reporter get those bozos from ESPN to apologize as well for making fans listen to three hours of awful announcing? I was close to using the mute button, or even the SAP.
Evidently, the E in ESPN doesn’t stand for excellence.-JD
I mean can it get worse than the two of them arguing about what plays at 1st a First Baseman should or shouldnt make? Or hear about how a homerun was Extraordinary and a Reggie Jackson shot?
How about Joe Morgan arguing that there was only one time that the Mets and the Yanks played in both stadiums on the same day. And being so adamant about it too! Morgan is an awful analyst. Oh yeah…the question…replay for home runs and that’s it. To look at every close call at first would take too much time unless a manager gets one challenge per game.
I would like to see it used for fair and foul balls. I do not think it is going to slow the game any more than the umpires conferencing and saying to each other; “All right who wants to guess on this one” if none of them saw it clearly. As for last night, when did Derek Jeter become part of the umpiring crew? It is hard enough playing against 25 members. It is almost impossible when an umpire acts like the 26th. These two games at Yankee Stadium seemed like an uphill battle with this umpiring crew. The strikeout of Easley looking with the bases loaded on a pitch that was clearly outside on the replay, the strikeout of Alou in the same game on a similar pitch, and, Wagner not getting a third strike call on the last out of the game on Saturday where even the batter flinched like he knew was going to be punched out. I definitely do not want balls and strikes replayed. I just want the umpires to be consistent with the strike zone, no matter who is up.
On the ESPN crew there covering the game. A good announcing crew does a little research and knows a few good topical items that can be brought up during the game. Apparently, the ESPN announcers believe they can just wing it and say whatever twisted recollection they have. That is what makes them so difficult to listen to. They are like the loud guy everyone knows that is going to share with you all of his “wealth” of knowledge whether you want to hear it or not.
Yeah, you’re right, they do absolutely no homework for the game. Instead of the dead time where Keith or someone will give you a great story about his playing days or about a player on the opposing team, I get to listen to those bozos talk about how they sat around and watched Basketball all day long or walked around the city.
Joe Morgan is terrible. I understood why Miller was arguing with him. It was as if Joe was suggesting that the scoop that Delgado made was so routine that he didn’t deserve any of the credit for it. I don’t think it was totally routine, I thought it was a pretty good scoop. In general Morgan knows very little about what’s going on in the majors. He can’t talk beyond generalities on cliches. If you haven’t seen this I highly recommend it :
http://www.firejoemorgan.com/
I think replay for HR/no-HR, fair/foul is a no-brainer. Ideally I think that ball/strike calls should be automated. You’ve K-Zone, Fox-box and all the other names that show whether or not the pitch was a strike within a split second from when it crosses the plate and they are way more consistent and accurate than actual umpires. Why not use the technology to actually call the pitches?
I suggested this somewhere else and other people posted that they were so against it that they would stop watching baseball if they used an automatic ball/strike calling machine. I couldn’t understand it.
JD – what are your thoughts on willie calling mets fans racist? and saying how HES turned this team around. and how mets fans were in ther closet before 05?
heres the link
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/mets/Angry_Randolph_attacks_critics_who_hurt_me_to_my_core.html
I also forgot to mention how he compares himself to herm edwards and isiah thomas
I take that article with a grain of salt. The only thing I care about is them winning games.
still, how stupid can he be? I have not heard ANYBODY say they want willie fired because he is black. he seems to fault every1 in that article from the fans, to art howe to the sny cameras. every1 but himself.
my favorite part of the announcing last night was when joe morgan suggested that wright may have left early when tagging and scoring from third.
after the replays showed that not only was this not the case but also not even close, morgan proceeded to try and cover his mistakes by suggesting that wright’s upper body left early but his legs left on time.
they then replayed david wright leaving third on time from about 3 other angles so that joe morgan could continue to try and find some sort of point.
I agree that the color of Randolph’s skin has not been used any where I have watched or read as a rationale to fire him. The bigger problem is that he must be thinking it to be so otherwise why bring it up? Complacency?, yes; stubbornous?, yes; color?, absolutely not. Statements like the ones he made are what create those distinctions and put the game and society back decades. One would hope he either is more specific and mentions some source where he heard it from so that it is not just left out there as a possible widespread perceived problem. Personally, I do not care if the manager is bright blue with orange stripes as long as he does not leave Heilman after a tie game becomes a four run deficit.
Instant replay for home runs is not going to slow the game by much and would benefit the players. As for ESPN’s announcers, they suck. Would be nice if Ron Darling was there for some reprieve.
Use the instant replays for disputed home run calls.
Wow figures I would miss a game where the Mets Crush the Yankees.
I am in Tokyo and haven’t seen a single game. I am going through withdrawals.
Delgaddago has had a bad enough of a bad season , its unfair he got screwed out a of homerun ball. It isnt fair. They probably ruled it foul because of his bad season the ump said to himself yeah. delgado’s having a bad season, I am a yankee fan, the mets are winning let me just ruin the batting avg, even more.
Ump should get peanlized.
Willie should have argued and been ejected. He really needs to get in the face. way t laid back.
if there was ever a time to get kicked out thats the time.
oh well..
I feel that instant replay would be a plus. However, limiting challanges to 2 per manager and if a manager was overturned it would cost him an out, would limit the challanges to only game turning situations.
After reading Randolph’s comments in the O’Connor piece, I am more convinced than ever before hat Randolph must be removed. Stillsane, you are 100% right. Who the heck cares what color he is? Willie, you just don’t get it.
I think instant replay in baseball would be awful. It would start on fair/foul calls but then would just snowball from there. No clocks. Not instant replay. Just leave baseball the way it is, flaws and all.
If Willie’s right—and it’s the media’s fault—then I want to be the first to blame John Delcos. There.
One not so redeeming quality of Willie is this sense that everyone is against him-a chip on his shoulder.
An all-star 2B, a coach on 4 WS winners and now a manager of one of the big market teams. Evidence would suggest that even if someone or some group was against him, he did pretty good.
Doc’s Sports Picks Guru,
the only instant replay baseball should have is for the home run, whether if the ball was fair or fair (Delgado’s home run that was changed to a foul ball) or the ball went over the fence and came back in play (Beltran’s home run this year that was reversed) and last night’s padres game where the fan reached over the fence and interfered with the padres out fielder and they ruled it a home run when it should have been called fan interference. The umps cannot see that far to make the correct call. I think they should only have instant replay for these situations mentioned.
I like Willie Randoloph. I respect him. But I just don’t think he’s the manager the Mets need right now. The Mets need someone the players would take a bullet for, someone who shows as much fight as we would expect from the players. The Mets don’t need a white manager, they need a manager who bleeds blue and orange.
This has nothing to do with the color of his skin and I am completely disappointed that Willy would make such a racist comment.
That just gives another reason on why there should be instant replays in baseball, but only for determining whether balls are fair or foul. You shouldn’t be able to review whether a ball is a strike or a ball; only fair or foul. That will help reduce many blown calls.
Here is an interesting discussion on the instant replay in baseball that you may be interested in: http://www.rootzoo.com/threads/view/MLB/New-York-Mets/Instant-Replay_129160