Major League Baseball Is Making an Error With
Instant Replay
By Seth Swirsky
HuffingtonPost.com
Starting next year, Major League Baseball (MLB) will
institute limited Instant Replay to decide close
plays and the, on the whole, rare missed-calls by
its professional umpires. I say Boooo! While all of
us want all the calls to be right so the deserving
team wins based on its true merit, Instant Replay
will ruin practically the last thing in America that
isn't ruled by technology.
In short, Instant Replay will assuredly damage our
National Pastime. This is why:
1) Baseball is known as a "game of inches." A hitter
being called safe or out on a close play can make
the difference between victory and defeat. Whether a
hitter went "around" and actually swung at a pitch
-- a matter of an inch, more often than not -- can
be the difference between an inning-ending strikeout
or a walk-off home run on the next pitch. The amount
of challenges demanded by fans (and managers) in
this "game of inches" won't stop at the three now
proposed by MLB. Baseball is a game of never-ending
close plays, but in most games, the good and bad
calls even out. An infinitesimal amount of games
over baseball's many decades have been played over
the years but very few under protest because of a
bad call.
2) Controversy is a boon to the sport, not a
hindrance. Baseball's folklore is filled with
discussions and arguments over controversial plays.
Baseball fans still talk about "The Jeffrey Maier
Play" in the '96 playoffs or whether Reggie Jackson
intentionally allowed a ball to hit him, breaking up
a double play in the '77 World Series. This is the
stuff of baseball legend -- the stuff people
reminisce about with phrases like, "I remember where
I was when Ed Armbrister supposedly interfered with
Carlton Fisk's throw to 2nd base in the '75 Series
or the non-strikeout of A.J. Pierzynski in the 2005
American League Championship Series. Controversy -
without the resolution provided by the latest
technology -- helps enshrine the folklore of the
game. It engenders the passion of the game decades
after the actual play took place. Instant Replay
would severely water down that experience. If there
were Instant Replay during the World Series of 1932
we would all now know for absolute sure that Babe
Ruth did or did not point to center field, "calling
his shot" against Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. The
reason Ruth's "Called Shot" is still talked about
today is precisely because we don't know whether he
actually called it! The dimension of controversy, so
important to the lore of the game, would be a thing
of the past if Instant Replay was implemented.
3) One of the arguments for Instant Replay is that
the technology is here to be able to get the calls
right. What happens when the technology of invisible
lasers is available (if it isn't already!) that can
call balls and strikes -- all judgment calls --
eliminating the need for a home plate umpire? Will
technology then take over the entire game? Is it not
conceivable that every "call" in the near future
will be made from the press box using the latest
technology?
4) Part of the fun of the game is watching a manager
argue with an umpire who he feels made a bad call.
It's exciting to see a manager thrown out of a ball
game. It's one of the things that gets fans "up" in
a game. With Instant Replay it becomes a much
calmer, less exciting game. I'll take the passions
of the managers over the years like Earl Weaver and
Tommy Lasorda over a video operator any day!
5) Finally, what's this fixation we have with making
sure every single call is right? What baseball
teaches us is that, like in a real life, if
something doesn't go our way, even if it's unfair,
we have to make the best of it and move on. To try
to win despite the bad breaks! It's why baseball,
the way it has always been, is a good lesson to
adults and kids alike: the game, like life, doesn't
stop to determine fairness at every turn. We've all
heard the old adage "Life is unfair." Well, so is
baseball sometimes. It moves along despite the rare
bad call. The best judgments are made by the
well-trained "judges" on the field, the umpires.
They sometimes get it wrong but much more often, and
with phenomenal skill, they get it right. Most
ballplayers will tell you that over the course of a
game (and certainly an entire season) the calls even
out.
So, Major League Baseball, tread lightly now that
you've entered the world of instant replay. They
say, marijuana is a gateway drug. In that vein, I
fear the limited use of replay in baseball will lead
to much greater use of it in the not-so distant
future. In a "game of inches", the challenges
allowed each team will eventually be increased and
the game will bog down. Machines will have won, not
the fans.
The great game, as it is has worked for 146 years.
Fans watching the Cincinnati Reds in 2013 at The
Great American Ballpark are experiencing baseball in
basically the same way fans did who saw the
Cincinnati Red Stockings at Union Park in 1869. Why
change something that is already so good by
instituting a policy sure to change the game's
natural, almost poetic flow?
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