The MLB season is coming to an end and there have been over 1,000 instances of the new instant replay review system and rules. It is a good idea, but so far, it has not proved to work out.
Let’s say you are okay with having umpires who make the occasional incorrect call over the course of a game as well as okay with having managers delay the game by walking at a snails pace to go out and “argue” a call.
We all understand with this expansion of replay, managers are going to use their assistant coaches to call someone upstairs who is watching on a monitor to determine if the call was correct or not. All of this is monkey business, and ultimately an embarrassment to the league.
When you have an old manager chatting with an umpire, while looking back into his dugout to his assistant to see whether or not he should challenge the play, it delays the game and makes me feel embarrassed for everyone watching.
If you throw this factor out the door and only concern yourself with making sure the right calls are made and fairness is distributed by the umpires, you should still be embarrassed by the “people back in New York” we’ve heard so much about.
This is how MLB has decided to go about all of this replay business. They have given the authority right over to officials who are in a studio in New York watching every play. The officials in New York and the television networks must not be watching the same game.
If MLB wants to have this replay system, they have to do it right. The best way to go about reviewing plays is not by leaving it up to the people in New York watching the game.
There should not be replays at all in baseball. There is a certain purity when it comes to this sport that desperately needs to be saved before it is gone. If this game is really viewed as America’s pastime, we should not have replays. It is just not very American.
I mean, think about it. America is a land that trusts its citizens enough to run the government, and thrive in a capitalistic society. What kind of faith are we instilling in our umpires when we do not trust them enough to do their job?
And if the league absolutely has to have a replay system, then they should keep it to just reviews on possible home run calls. This is the one play I am still stumped on sometimes. It can be a tough call figuring out if the ball goes over the fence or not, or in other instances, if it was foul or not.
If the league is not willing to change it back to its original system, then the least we can expect from them is to simply get the call right. There is just no pressure nowadays. If the umpire blows a call, he has replay to back him up, so get it right.
There have already been too many calls I have seen having either been too close to overturn and were overturned, or plays which should have been overturned and were not.
I do not have an eagle’s eye, so I am sure some of the replay review results I have disagreed with have indeed been called correct. But, I think I speak for fans watching on television when I say I have been completely dumbfounded by some of the blown calls these replays were supposed to fix.
The MLB should cut their losses and go back to the original way of getting things correct, by relying on a human being to amend umpire calls.