“The way baseball games are governed on the field changed dramatically Thursday…”
Look, ask any umpire, professional or amateur, and they will tell you all they want is to get the call right. IR is a tool that will help do that so what's the big deal? The NFL’s use of IR has been a great success by any measure, but in baseball, the word “judgment” as in “umpire judgment” carries a deeper meaning. There are calls all over the diamond where the umpires use their discretion, based on the nature of the action, to dish out baseball justice that stays close to the inherent spirit or soul of the game. Let me give you an example. In last fall ’s MLB playoffs,
Torii Hunter of the Tigers tried to steal second before the pitch in an effort to catch the pitcher sleeping, but the A’s Bartolo Colon simply spun and threw to second for the seemingly easy out. The replay revealed however that the tag was a bit high and Hunter was technically safe. The announcer said something to the effect, “I don’t care that the replay showed he was safe, that’s bad base running so I have to agree with the out call.”
Joe Torre, Hall of Fame manager and Rules Committee chairman, made the statement at yesterday's announcement "I'm not sure what price you want to pay for what the replay is going to be. We're going to start this way and if something has to be adjusted , we'll certainly be aware of that." Torre was speaking to the concern of pace-of-play and extended delays, but not about the type of play I described. How do fans feel about that? Or how about, let's say, a great double-play turn by Dustin Pedroia following a diving stop by the third baseman, but it's overturned because IR showed the Dustin's toe was off the bag as he leaped and relayed a strike to first, all the while avoiding a hard take-out slide designed to kill him? Well, the IR committee did their homework and have made the "phantom" play at second base immune to video review, one of the exceptions (as well as obstruction and interference). While I applaud their effort to consider this kind of play, the exception is a bit of a fly in the ointment as many safe/out calls, too close for the naked eye to discern, can be toggled by the umpire based on the quality of the baseball play that preceded it, but could now be reversed. "Ties" for example are mostly "outs" when following a nice stop and throw. Of course ties are like Santa Clause, they do and do not exist, but that will be a story for another day...
Brave's president and IR committee member John Shuerholz added at yesterday's rollout, "This is historic and quite complex...everytime we peeled back one layer of the onion, we found more complexities." I'm not saying the benefit of IR is not the greater good, but it indeed comes with a cost to the way the game might be officiated in the future, beyond the obvious implications of potential delays and protocol issues. Somewhere there might also be a baseball god shedding a tear from that onion peel.
Next up: Bud Selig “I’m proud of the changes we’ve made…because they will not disturb the game as we know it…”
Jim Tosches is an amateur umpire and blogger in Encinitas, Ca and author of the book, "The Rules Abide: The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball Rules (With History, Humor and a Few Big Words)"
One problem I see is that the review footage used by the NFL for instant replay is tightly controlled by the league. In baseball, many of the cameras are owned and controlled by local broadcast outlets. The teams own or control many of these, like NESN (Red Sox) and MASN (Orioles), If there was a crucial call questioned in an important game, will there be certainty film footage from every camera angle that is available will be offered for review if the replay looks as if it is going against the team that owns the broadcast?
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