Rebecca Fitzgerald, Assistant copy editor
Baseball is a game full of human errors. Batters strike out left and right and infielders incomplete simple, routine plays. Errors are bound to happen. The errors that are intolerable, however, are not by the players, but the umpires.
Between 2008 – when the MLB first implemented instant replay – and the conclusion of the 2010 season, replay has been used 123 times, 48 of which were overturned calls. The scary part is that this statistic only applies to boundary reviews for home runs, which determine whether a home run was fair, whether the ball left the playing field and if the ball was subject to fan interference.
So my question is: Why not use instant replay to eliminate officiating errors that are easily avoidable? Furthermore, why not expand the use of instant replay?
Even MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, who generally doesn’t support replay, agreed: “It is vital that mistakes on the field be addressed.”
It is really only common sense to allow umpires to utilize instant replay at their own discretion. Everyone makes mistakes, right?
Just look at Jim Joyce, the infamous umpire who robbed Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game. Joyce incorrectly ruled that Cleveland Indians batter Jason Donald reached first safely on a ground ball; due to baseball’s rules, however, Joyce was unable to correct his error.
This shook the world of baseball, although most of the community was apologetic and supportive for Joyce and Galarraga. The use of instant replay, however, should at least be expanded to “spare the umpires unnecessary infamy,” according to veteran umpire Tim McClelland.
“There are a lot of problems eventually with this, but in the last year, I think, a lot of umpires have taken undue criticism,” stated McClelland on ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” radio show. McClelland, whose own missed call on a rundown play in the 2009 American League Championship Series left him open to ridicule, continued, “I think more and more umpires are coming around to it.”
Instant replay should be expanded to other rulings of the game, such as force-outs, foul balls and tag plays. Oftentimes these are missed calls because of the players. For instance, a wide throw to first forces the umpire to watch the ball into the glove or the runner hit the base. The umpire cannot watch both, since they aren’t in his line of vision. Other poor calls are caused because of the players’ bodies blocking the umpires’ view.
As the playoffs are approaching, just consider the importance of fairness. As you’re watching your favorite team lose its opportunity to reach the World Series because of one bad call, remember it could’ve been a different story. You’ll wish there was instant replay to get it.
Matt Smith, Assistant sports editor
As the use of technology becomes more and more popular throughout the sporting world, Major League Baseball has been under pressure to expand its use of instant replay.
I agree with the extent of the current Major League Baseball rules regarding instant replay use, but I feel that although it would not be a disastrous one, expanding its use would be a mistake.
Before I dive into the argument something needs to be cleared up first. In the last few years, the idea has spread that the accuracy of umpires making correct calls has greatly lessened. This is merely an illusion. We as viewers now have a dozen different camera angles to see the missed calls that have been a part of the game since its inception. This humanity is an aspect of the game that is overlooked and underappreciated. Umpires make mistakes, it happens. As a game fought between humans, should some machine really determine the competition? This is similar to why no one cares about chess anymore – the computer always wins.
Time is one of the greatest issues with instant replay, and already one of baseball’s greatest foes. The average time of a typical game pushes the three-hour mark, not to mention when the Boston Red Sox square off against the New York Yankees. Let’s face it: C.C. Sabathia gains another five pounds and Derek Jeter’s hairline retreats another inch by the 7th inning stretch.
In a time when sports fans and society in general have an ever-decreasing attention span and an endlessly increasing desire for action, MLB can’t afford to slow down play. While I can appreciate the beauty of a classic low-scoring pitcher’s duel, the typical younger generation of fans are more attracted to a fast, more “exciting” play – something that professional football and basketball provide on a daily basis. Instant replay would only accentuate the time problem, slowing down an already slow game.
Also, a large portion of fans actually enjoys the drama and excitement that results from the fallibility of some umpires’ calls and the importance placed on them making the right call. The sub-plot of manager-umpire interaction is a direct result of this, and would be lost if instant replay was ubiquitous in baseball.
While umpires do miss some calls over the course of a season, they still are not making these mistakes at a rate in which wins and losses are affected enough to raise concern. Instant replay contradicts the game’s tradition, and tradition is undoubtedly more important to America’s pastime than any other sport.
There is a place for instant replay in baseball, but just adding the technology to all aspects of the game because it is now available, does not necessarily mean it is what’s best for the game.