Major League Baseball is known for being the sport that has been reluctant to implement instant replay. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that instant replay would be used only on home run calls in 2008.
However, due to the rise in blown calls by umpires, there has been a cry for reform by restless fans. Those fans got their wish when on Aug. 15 Selig announced that Major League Baseball plans to expand instant replay. The owners will formally vote on it in November during their meetings in Orlando. These changes still have to be negotiated with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the World Umpires Association. If the owners agree to expand instant replay then it would start at the beginning of next year. This new system states that each manager will have three challenges per game. They will have one challenge for the first six innings, and then each manager will have two challenges from the beginning of the seventh inning until the game’s conclusion. The manager will not be charged with a review if the challenge is successful. The MLBAM offices in New York will review every call with the cameras provided. Men with umpiring experience will monitor these cameras and will make the final call on the field, not the crew chief.
This is where the debate begins between old-school baseball fans and the new generation of fans that support Major League Baseball using 21st century technology to review calls. The traditionalists believe that this new system will slow down the pace of the game and if the pace were slowed down, then it would hurt the purity of baseball. Other traditionalists like former Yankees Manager and current MLB Executive Vice President of Operations Joe Torre state that “the human element is vital to baseball,” which implies that there would be no use for umpires if technology can make important calls for them. The opposition believes that getting the call right is the number one priority. They believe that there have been too many blown calls in the last decade. Most notably when former Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from a perfect game until Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians hit a slow ground ball to Miguel Cabrera in 2010. Cabrera threw the ball to Galarraga who was covering first base. It was a bang-bang play but first base umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe when he was clearly out. The opposition believes that if this play was reviewed then Donald would have been called out and Galarraga would have had a perfect game.
Therefore, Atlanta Braves team president John Schuerholz, an advocate for expanded replay says, “Reviewable plays will cover 89 percent of those incorrect calls that were made in the past. The 11 percent remaining are in the non-reviewable category, but can still be argued by the manager.”
Personally, I am a huge fan of baseball tradition and the old-school values that come with it but I am also a member of 21st century society, which allows us to have full access to technology. There needs to be instant replay of some sort in Major League Baseball. We can’t fully be reliant on the human element in baseball anymore but at the same time, we should still be able to preserve some of it for a younger generation of baseball fans. What baseball fans can do now is to try to find a fine line where traditionalist and a perfectionist and can find a perfect equilibrium. On that note, we will see if this new system of instant replay will be approved. If so, the future of Major League Baseball will drastically change forever.
Phil Novotny can be reached at philip.novotny@spartans.ut.edu.