MLB Replay Gets Off to a Thrilling Start

Well, I’d say last night’s little replay of A-Rod’s homer wasn’t exactly what the system was put in place for. It was a two-run homer in the 9th inning of a game the Yanks already were leading by three runs. (Insert witty remark about another meaningless A-Rod homer here). And it was a ball that went approximately 58 feet over the foul pole. In other words, it was pretty much impossible to tell where it crossed the invisible fair-foul line that continues from the top of the pole to infinity.
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↵↵As you can see from the screen grab above, it clearly hooked foul sometime after crossing the foul pole. But, because there was no camera on homeplate, or on the top of the pole looking straight up, we can’t tell if it was indeed fair, as they called it on the field. And I’m fairly certain that the replay folks in New York couldn’t tell either. So the call was upheld, A-Rod padded his stats, and the Yanks won 8-4, meaning the home run was meaningless anyway. ↵

↵↵The entire ordeal took over two minutes and probably went exactly as MLB had planned for these reviews to go. But when I was all pro-replay earlier this season, I had envisioned it being used for game-changing calls. And for calls that were clearly visible on television, like whether a ball actually went over the yellow line in centerfield, for example. This was a call that was impossible to overturn, no matter how they’d ruled it on the field, in a game that was likely out of hand already with Rivera ready to come in. ↵

↵↵Of course, at some point in the playoffs, a hit that was ruled a Game 7 walk-off homer for Ryan Howard will be correctly overturned, the Philles will go on to lose in the most painful manner imaginable, and I’ll love this system all over again. At least, that’s just my little fantasy. ↵

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