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Report: Baseball to try out instant replay.

metirish May 22 2008 02:31 PM

] FROM NEWSDAY.com Citing "a baseball official with knowledge of the discussion," ESPN.com reported today that Major League Baseball is making tentative plans to use instant replay to judge home runs in this year's Arizona Fall League. If the experiment proves successful, ESPN's web site reported, it could be extended into 2009 spring training and the World Baseball Classic. The topic of instant replay has been a hot-button issue this season, especially after a three-run home run was incorrectly taken away from the Mets' Carlos Delgado during ESPN's telecast of the Mets-Yankees game on Sunday night. The umpire closest to the play at first concluded that the ball was fair, but after a huddle, the umpires reversed the call. Replays showed clearly Delgado's ball struck the base of the foul poll and should have been called fair. One night later in Houston, umpires ruled a ball hit by the Cubs' Geovany Soto off a center-field wall was in play when it should have been a home run. Soto turned the hit into an inside-the-park home run anyway. On Wednesday night, a ball hit by the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez cleared the centerfield wall and hit a staircase and bounced back into play. Rodriguez was awarded a double when the play should have been ruled a home run. The Yankees won the game, 8-0.

Benjamin Grimm May 22 2008 02:33 PM

Why is there such an epidemic of missed home run calls lately? It's bizarre. If there are too many purists who don't like the idea of instant replay, then you need to put two umpires in the outfield, like in postseason games. And they wouldn't be able to be overruled by the guys in the infield.

AG/DC May 22 2008 02:40 PM

I would think they'd have to go with it in a full season minor league to get any real data on whether it works. (Prediciton: it will.)

metsguyinmichigan May 22 2008 02:52 PM

I was just amazed to see that one call go AGAINST the Yankees! I didn't think that every happened. No wonder AWuss looked so incredulous.

Willets Point May 22 2008 02:57 PM

Funny that action is taken once a call goes against the Yankees.

Gwreck May 22 2008 03:07 PM

I forget who (Jason Stark?) but someone had suggested a while ago that the umpiring crews should just expand by one so that the fifth umpire can be the official scorer and replay reviewer. Helps the umpires union as their ranks are expanded; helps baseball be fairer and more accurate.

Willets Point May 22 2008 03:30 PM

If instant replay is done it shouldn't be done with the TV cameras but with special umpire cameras that focus on places like the outfield wall and foul lines throughout the game. I also think it would be asking for trouble to use IR for checking ball/strike calls or tagouts on the basepaths, so I hope it is limited to the places where flying balls can easily fall out of eyesight of even the most vigilant umpire.

DocTee May 22 2008 04:31 PM

A few years back there was a disputed HR call in a Marlins game (I watched it on ESPN--it was a holiday, maybe Memorial Day or Labor Day, more likely Independence Day I'm thinking) where the crew chief consulted the cameraman for confirmation (peering into the screen like an NFL official) to get the right call...and he was disciplined by the league. Anyone remember this?

Frayed Knot May 22 2008 09:05 PM

Willets Point wrote: If instant replay is done it shouldn't be done with the TV cameras but with special umpire cameras that focus on places like the outfield wall and foul lines throughout the game. A point almost no one has brought up (at least publicly) is that baseball - unlike the totally network televised NFL - has most of its TV cameras controlled by the home team and those cameras, plus any replays that come from them, are run by folks who have an interest in the outcome of that play and the games overall. I'm not against using IR for HRs in concept, but it's always much tougher to implement the system than it is to imagine it and it's at least as tough to limit it to the original guidelines once it's in place.

Elster88 May 23 2008 08:27 PM

Great point by Gary. How long did Delgado's non-homer take after the discussion and arguments? Instant replay could speed up the games.

Frayed Knot May 23 2008 09:19 PM

Umps blow another HR call in the Injuns-stRangers game tonight

batmagadanleadoff May 23 2008 09:42 PM

I'm all for instant replay for those too close to call HR's/near-HR's. But the replay rule won't work as well when an umpire mistakenly calls a HR that shouldn't have been. In that instance, what do you do with the runners that might've been on base? I suppose that the batter will be credited with a ground rule double with all runners advancing two bases. But then the faster runners will claim that they could've scored had the play not been terminated by the botched HR call. And a fast runner (like our Reyes) might claim that he's been robbed of a triple. Umpires might be given the discretion to place baserunners wherever the umpires believe they would have reached had the play not been botched to begin with. I suspect though, that whichever team is on the short end of the umpires' discretion would be just as unhappy as Delgado and the Mets were earlier this week when Carlos was unjustly robbed of a legitimate HR. So even the proper use of instant replay won't clean up every botched HR call. In the grand scheme of things though, I suppose that the use of replay here would still be an improvement -- but it'll come with a new can of worms. Or perhaps --- in the event that umpires are given discretion on where to place the baserunners, replay might have the unintended effect of inhibiting umpires from calling HR's on those too close to call shots, once they realize that it's simpler to give back a HR than it is to deal with the messy situation of having to determine where to properly place the runners after reversing a mistaken HR call.

Frayed Knot May 23 2008 09:54 PM

Replay rules always work better in theory than in practice.

batmagadanleadoff May 23 2008 09:57 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Replay rules always work better in theory than in practice. Doesn't everything?

Elster88 May 26 2008 08:34 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Replay rules always work better in theory than in practice. It works good in tennis. Probably the easiest sport to use it in though.