Tuesday, October 20, 2009

My first post!

Hey everyone! A big thanks to Lisa for inviting me to post on her blog!

After watching 3 blown calls during the Yankees/Angels game tonight, I just wanted to comment on umpiring and instant replay this post-season.

Having umpired myself, I do give umpires credit. Their job is difficult having to make instant decisions and many times on close calls. I am (and always have been) a fan of instant replay. I was thrilled when MLB added instant replay this season to verify home runs and foul balls. I'm hoping that the horrible calls this post-season will persuade MLB to review the possibility of extending instant replay in the playoffs to questionable calls on tag plays, etc. That being said, I wouldn't want the most obvious of correct calls to be questioned, however obvious missed calls (such as those that happened tonight) should be reviewable. One thing to stress is that balls & strikes should never be verified through instant replay!

Don't get me wrong, I feel lucky when a missed call goes the Yankees way (I'm hoping the Yankees gave Jeff Maier season tickets for life!). However, when an entire teams' season can ride on a bad call, care should be taken to keep the great game of baseball as honest and fair as possible for all play-off teams involved.

1 comment:

  1. hmmm interesting. I was going to blog about this as well... but this is why I am glad you are on. You write something that gets me fired up and Ill blog right then and there :)

    Ok, so I actually dont agree that we should have instant replays in mlb. It has its good obvious points for sure, but to me, it will take way the sanctity that is special and true to the game of baseball. It is a technology that every other sport has adopted. Being the last of a dying breed is one of the last things that is keeping baseball true to its original form. Its like trying to create an ocean- it cant be done. Man can make many things, but when you sit on the beach and look at the ocean you think, this is one thing that man just can not create. It's a sanctity and true form that can never be recreated or changed. Same goes for the process of calling a play. This is an art and a skill, and with human skill comes human error - it is a win lost situation. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose; which sucks , but it is also cool because "it's how it goes". Why can't it just be "that's how the cookie crumbles", "that's the way it goes", "you win some, you lose some". Things aren't fair in life, and in life, we all wish there were cameras on everything and instant replays, but there aren't. We need to teach the young ones that "you win, some you lose some", "sometimes life isn't fair"; dont take that away! The sanctity of the game is why I LOVE baseball and hate football! dont make it all the same.

    ok. moving on, if they ever do add instant replay, you are correct, there should be a rule that no obvious calls can be challenge. no strikes or balls. but seriously? where would you draw the line?
    lets just NOT go down that road.

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