A Voice Against the Use of Replay in MLB
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Thursday, Major League Baseball will follow the NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAA football, NCAA basketball, ATP, and Little League in adopting instant replay to review calls on important plays. Reportedly, replay will only be used to double-check home run calls. As sparingly as the system will be used, I’m still disappointed that it’s come to this. We’re administering a heavy dose of 20th-century technology to a 19th-century game, and something just doesn’t feel right about this, like a pint of mint chip ice cream before dinner.↵↵Pro football’s become a made-for-television sport, so it makes sense to embrace TV as much as possible, including the concept of replay. Pro basketball is an indoor game designed to be as much a multimedia entertainment spectacle as a sporting event, so TV is hardly anathema to the sport’s spirit. Baseball, however, remains best experienced live, among the crowds with a hot dog in hand and a beverage on the knee. TV is an intrusion on the proceedings, so making it an integral part of how the game is called seems excessive.↵
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↵Not to get too Klosterman on you, but I'm fascinated with the notion of technologically precise tools influencing the course of events. Jeffrey Maier interfered with the ball before it could fall into Tony Tarasco's glove, but Richie Garcia ruled differently. It remains the truth that there was no interference because Garcia's word was law, even if the replays indicate he should have made a different call. Beginning later this week, the next Jeffrey Maier will not be a folk hero who helped usher the Yankees into the World Series, but will instead likely end up that punk kid who cost Jet-ah a possible double off the wall.↵
↵↵By virtue of changing the way umpires observe and call the game, since they have that safety net, we’re introducing a new element to how fans watch baseball and interact with it. Where in the past a questionable home run would set off the drama of an uncivil discussion between manager and man in blue until another umpire stepped in to confirm to the others that he’d seen the ball clear the fence, now the drama will come from whether or not a camera operator got a good shot of the ball bouncing past the yellow line. Instead of relating to the emotions of the moment, I suspect fans will relate more to the art of television production and direction.↵
↵↵I trust Bug Selig, et al, considered this carefully, but we’re on the proverbial slippery slope toward sensors in the balls and bases to help determine close force plays, the next iteration of QuesTec giving beeps and flashes to indicate balls and strikes, and so on. Sure we may see a few more calls go the “correct” way as determined by technological precision, but we’ll also be yet another step away from the game’s pastoral soul.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
