USA Today reports that major league baseball is considering implementing instant replay this season and could do so by August 1 to have it in place for the pennant races and playoffs. The general managers originally voted in favor of exploring instant replay during the winter meetings and it would be used for homerun calls to see whether a ball is actually over the fence or fair or foul.
I am completely against any use of instant replay in baseball. When I watch football, I can not stand when instant replay is used. It drags the game out, takes away the human element, and has changed the game forever. Now there are those putting asterisks next to games where calls were wrong before instant replay was used. Will we start talking that way in baseball? And where does it end? Do we start challenging ball and strike calls? It is a slippery slope. Who will challenge these calls? How do you make a penalty if the challenge is wrong? How do we stop every play from being challenged that is even somewhat close?
A better solution. In the past month or so, I have seen two games where an umpire has been removed because of injury. (They should be wearing full head gear but that is a topic for another post.) This leaves the umpire squad with only 3 umps and compromised. How about going to 6 umpires in every game like they do in the playoffs? An umpire with no other job but to rule on balls down the line and on homerun balls is sure to get 99.9% of the calls right. This leaves the human element while ensuring the calls are being made properly. It stops baseball from having to invent new replay rules, and stops the sport from turning people off like football has done to me and many other fans. It also gives the umpire squad extra bodies should someone not be able to call an entire game.
This makes so much sense Bud Selig will never get it!
