Instant Replay: Baseball

The first year of instant replay being utilized in Baseball as an official means of accurately calling the game is almost over. Personally, I think it's been a success, and a miserable failure. Instant replay is being used for ONLY questionable homeruns. When it is utilized, it takes the umpires an average of about 2 minutes from the time they stop the game to the moment they return to the field with their decision. That, I believe, is the greatest success of Baseball's replay.

Early concerns were the pace of the game: How long is this going to delay already long games?! Part of that problem is the affect of money on the game. Instead of taking 30 seconds between innings, television coverage and advertisement has prolonged the time between innings. 2 and a half hour games can become 3+. The other part of the problem is the ADHD batting preparations by the likes of Nomar Garciaparra, David Ortiz, (former pro) Chuck Knoblauch, and the list can go on. The worse these players are, the less times they need to adjust their gloves. The better, the more hand slaps between pitches - like are you fucking kidding me? Side note: nothing baseball players do is as bad as the LeBron James "chalk-throw" prior to a game beginning. How he does it and no one complains, and how he managed to get television cameras to shadow him for 20 minutes before and after this "event" is a significant accomplishment, because it's fucking retarded. Not like Forrest Gump retarded, like retard-retarded. Not like Rainman "oh I'm actually able to do amazing things even though I have challenges" retarded, I'm talking full on, crapping my pants and throwing objects at babies, retarded. Ah, I digress!

Baseball's umpires association (2nd most powerful union in the sports world other than the MLB Player Association) managed to put the kiabash on this for years saying it would undermine their expertise. Let me just say, that baseball umpire's are amazing at what they do. 99% of the time they get the calls right (100% of the time - that doesn't make sense), and even in slow-motion I can barely see what they see at full speed. It's amazing really. That 1% of the time is annoying though. It can cause a team to lose a game, and in more extreme circumstances, cause managers to lose their jobs if enough of these stupid errors occur. It also brings animosity towards the umpires and the league in general. Personally, I get what they're saying about balls and strikes, and I actually like the variation. There are 5 components to calling a strike a strike, and a ball a ball. There is the first, the home plate. That's the constant. It's the same size, and the same place all night long. Sweet. Component 2 is the pitcher and where he pitches the ball. This should be the only components in calling a strike, but we're human, and components 3, 4 and 5 alter the reading. Component 3 is the location of the catcher prior to the pitch, and where he catches the ball. If a catcher sets up inside (off the plate) and doesn't have to move his glove at all, he's likely to get the call from the ump. If the ball is a foot away from the glove (but crosses the plate for a strike) you better hope the ump saw that, because it might look like an errant pitch. Component 4 is the batters location and where he swings, and component 5 is the umpire himself, and how he calls pitches.

This is getting long, but I think a 5th (and for playoffs a 6th) should be inside a booth and be the final judge on certain plays if a manager protests. Replays should cover not only homeruns, but trap catches, close plays at home plate, and close tag plays at first, second and third. I've seen too many ump's get lazy and assume the 2nd baseman/shortstop brushed the base, or put a phantom tag (Rusty Dusty [Dustin Pedroia] and his phantom tag with the ball in one hand and the tag made with the other). That's all I got - I'm out.