Instant replay era begins on Thursday?
Submitted by Matt Smith on August 26, 2008 – 9:50 pm4 Comments
When I wrote on Sunday about instant replay being on its way, I didn’t think it would arrive this quickly.
According to John Perrotto on Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered, Bud Selig will be holding a press conference at 5.00 pm ET (22.00 BST) to announce that instant replay will be used to determine close calls on home runs starting on Thursday!
Sounds like a bit of a rushed job to me. It will be interesting to hear what testing they have done during actual in-game situations, because you can’t bring in something like this with one month left of the regular season without it being thoroughly tested. Can you?
EDIT: This news has just been confirmed on MLB.com. Here’s the press statement.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Congratulations to ESPN and FOX Sports for persuading a weak willed commisioner into doing your own bidding. Every major failure this sport has suffered in the last few years has been a result of Bud Selig bowing to ESPN and its wishes. Whether it was the Mitchell Report, or Giving Homefield advantage in the World Series to the winner of the All Star Game; Sellig has listened to the vioces at ESPN and presumed that they speak for the fans when in reality they only speak for ESPN. Selig must go. He needs to be removed from office. He is trying to ruin the game WE LOVE.
AFter last nights game, where there were complaints about the umpires in between the Yankees and Redsox, I think that maybe limiting instant replay should not be limited to homerun calls. If you’re going to use it to “get calls right” use it on all call that are blown. Otherwise don’t use it at all.
I think that’s part of the main issue here: Bud says he wants to use instant replay but only for disputed home run calls. I think once it’s in place, it will be very difficult to withstand the tide.
It’s sort of like letting the genie out of the bottle. Once you let it out you can’t put it back in. I don’t think you should limit it to homerun call if you’re going to use it. Other plays impact the out come of games as well. As runner who aviods the tag while trying to steel second but is call out by an umpire out of position could also have an impact on the outcome of the game.