Coming to your HDTV: Instant replay
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- August
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For a sport that has held tight to most of the same rules since Teddy Roosevelt was president, it’s startling to me MLB would rush instant replay into the game. It appears the league has done just that, at least it has gone a step further. The umps and MLB came to an agreement on implementing replay, perhaps as soon as this month.
It’s a fascinating story. Here’s what stands out to me:
1. Equipment has already been installed/is in the process of being installed. …wow, MLB is serious.
2. MLB will have a “war room” in New York. …I know the NHL has such a room in Toronto, where league officials review goal calls and communicate with on-ice officials. I just never thought baseball would go there.
3. Up to three umpires will review the replays. … I guess they leave the other guy in charge of the stadium. Sheesh.
Anyone have thoughts on this? Is it good? Bad? Despite all I wrote above, I think it’s a positive. I just believe baseball should take the winter to figure out how best to implement it.
A 10-minute replay delay done awkwardly could really derail Game 7 of the World Series, right?
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on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 8:00 am by Josh Thomson.
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I forget if it was Gary, Keith or Ron but they made a good point about delays. In the instances where this would be utilized, there are already sizable delays in the game while umpires huddle together for a lengthy meeting. This might actually cut down on time, unless managers abuse the replay system to argue more often.
It makes sense for HRs, but they should have waited to see how it works in ST and/or WBC before doing it in real games.
Good to go, it makes a lots of sense.
I think its a wonderful move. I just dont like the idea of adding something like this that can easily change the outcome of a game in the middle/end of a season.
I just don’t like it. I am not exactly a purist (and I hated it when they blew the call on Delgado) but this seems wrong to me. If the huddle and correct a mistake ok. But up to 10 minutes with my pitcher on the mound, pitching a hell of a game? Don’t like it.
It about time…... I just hope they dont spend half an hour looking at an obvious call…. Maybe having a war room will keep the umps egos in check which seem to be getting as big as the players….
Many times there is human error, but there are times when an umpire has an attitude and can use it to make a call for or against a team.
Humans do have weaknesses, and in no way will those weaknesses go away.
clm, they huddle now and still get it wrong. In the Yanks game w/delgado as you point out, they talked about for several minutes and still got in wrong. If they are going to talk, get it right. But first try it in ST games.
Good idea, but should test it out in AZ Fall League, WBC, or Grapefruit/Cactus leagues and get all of the, inevitable, kinks out of the system prior to putting employing it when things count for real. HRS shoudl be a less of an issue in posty season when you have umpires in Right and Left Field.
Too often the huddles changes things for the worse (see the Delgado homer at Yankee Stadium).
So long as they keep it to the letter of the law, then I am happy this is being used. Put a shorter time limit on it though. 10 minutes is too long.
Problem is they kinda have to impliment it as soon as possible. There have been so many botched calls this year…can you imagine if such a call happens in a playoff or world series game and has a significant impact? MLB would get ROASTED, by not using replay when it was agreed upon.
Would they review a Jeffrey Maier type call?
As I understand it, the system is for ground rule calls only. I actually don’t think that is especially complicated to implement. As long as they don’t go to safe/out calls at the bases. That’s not something that needs to be done by the letter of the law, whereas ground rules really do.
Ten minutes could be a long delay, but in truth, in the NFL and college the delays are frequently that long in real time.
You are correct-the instant replay is only for field calls, not for bag calls or strikes/balls and should be pretty easy to implement. Fans won’t allow those rules to change as the human element keeps things passionate! If you want the best quality picture to see the game in HD and make the calls yourself, get a Sharp TV. They are the official HDTV of the MLB because the picture quality (like contrast for night games) and refresh rates (no blurry balls) are specially tweaked for the sport. I am a rep so let me know if you have ?s or check out more info at http://sharp.smnr.us/.
Chessia—are you serious?? Shameless plug…I really hope you are kidding.
Better a ten minute delay than three weeks of the television and radio sports media never shutting up about a blown call, I’d say.
For the life of me I will never understand opposition to instant replay. Is there anyone out there who thinks that replay has been an overall negative in football, hockey, basketball, and tennis? To the extent that there has been controversy over instant replay, it’s generally been because refs have misinterpreted a rule or if the rule itself is poor or ambiguous (examples: tuck rule and force-out rule in NFL), and if anything, those kinds of replay-generated controversies bring those flaws to light and allow the league to correct the rules themselves (as the NFL did by changing the force-out rule this past off-season). The vast majority of the time, replay either allows a clearly incorrect call to be changed (example: RW McQuarters’ interception in the Giants-Bucs playoff game this past year, which was initially ruled an incompletion but was then reversed) or shows insufficient evidence. The fact that baseball has lasted so long without replay is a testament only to baseball’s unwillingness to change with the times and to stand up to umpires who are afraid of being reversed.
The “human element of the game” argument is one of the sillier ones I’ve heard. It’s not like the game is going to be umpired by robots. You have an occasional call on a bang-bang play that’s blown, and you correct it. Why should we have to wait until after the game for an umpire to say, “Yeah, I blew the call?”
Jesse, you said everything I wanted to say. The scope of reviewable calls is so limited that I don’t think they need to test it out in spring training (WBC is high stakes also, you wouldn’t want to test it there) first. They are simply going to look at HR calls/non-calls and see if the balls were home runs. That’s not too tough.
Of course there will be some for which it will be difficult to tell if its a HR even after looking at the replay and those will frustrating. Most will be easy and short to either overturn or uphold the umps original call.
I think it is an overall negative in every sport. It stops the flow of the game. I don’t even like the huddling. Make the call and move on.
Its worth it on some shots to take the time to get it right-athletes as well as fans deserve to have the call made right. Im just glad that baseball is sticking to foul balls and home plate calls so far. Also, what I said earlier about Sharp and the MLB came out wrong, sorry—but baseball in HD really is awesome.