With a two-run lead and two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday, Yankees right fielder Greg Golson made a shoe-string catch that was called a base hit because the umpire ruled that he had trapped the ball. Replays showed that this was not the case. Thankfully for MLB, Twins DH Jim Thome popped out to end the game, instead of tying the game with a home run.
Eventually one of these blown calls is going to take place in a key situation with millions of people watching and it’s going to cost a team a chance at a World Series title. If baseball is smart it will institute a replay system before this happens.
Just imagine if the scenario I just laid out were to happen with the Cubs on the losing end. You’re talking about Steve Bartman times a thousand. The goat population in the U.S. would decrease by 50 percent within the hour.
It’s not just the teams that would benefit from replay. Think Jim Joyce doesn’t wish replay was available? Now instead of being remembered as an umpire who has worked numerous postseasons, he’ll always be known for costing Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.
In game six of the 1985 World Series, umpire Don Denkinger blew a call in which he called the Royals’ Jorge Orta safe when he was clearly out. Orta eventually scored and the Royals went on to beat the Cardinals in that game and in game seven. After the series, Denkinger received death threats from angry Cardinals fans because of the call. Replay was not an option at the time because technology wasn’t up to snuff, but it is my belief that the MLB should probably do all it can to prevent its employees from receiving death threats from fans in the future.
The arguments against instant replay make no sense. Some feel it would ruin the human element of baseball officiating, while others argue that baseball games are slow enough as it is and taking a minute or two to look at a replay would interfere with the flow of the game.
In the NFL, each team has the opportunity to challenge two plays and if both calls are overturned, the team gets a third. The referees still exist. And they’re still actual human beings. So the whole human element argument is ridiculous. If baseball had replay, umpires wouldn’t just vanish. You think they’re going to put RoboCop out there?
The time argument makes more sense, but is still flawed. When a controversial call is made, the same thing happens every time. The manager of the team that is negatively affected by the call goes out and has what we all know is a friendly conversation with the umpire. Sometimes the conversation is so friendly that the ump gives that manager the rest of the day off. This sequence of events usually takes several minutes to end. In that time, the umpire could simply have looked at a replay and made sure the call was correct.
It wouldn’t be such a dramatic change. Have the crew chief either look at a replay himself in a place with a monitor or have him call someone in a booth to tell him if the call was correct or not. Give each team a certain amount of challenges just like in the NFL. Honestly, who doesn’t want to see Ozzie Guillen throw a red baseball at an umpire?
Right now the only thing that can be reviewed in baseball is home runs. Next season that needs to change. This season blown calls have kept teams off the scoreboard, out of the win column and for one Tigers pitcher, out of the history books. And the sad part is, for no apparent reason.
blasky@theeagleonline.com
