Thursday, May 22, 2008

Does Major League Baseball Need Instant Replay?


Carlos Delgado's Blown Homerun call Sunday Night has reignited the debate for Replay In Baseball.

This Is My Baseball Topic For today: Does Major League Baseball Need Instant Replay? According to ESPN.Com:
"Major League Baseball is making tentative plans to experiment with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League, according to a baseball official with knowledge of those discussions.

If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring training games.

If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay -- though only to decide home run calls -- as soon as next season."


The lack of Instant Replay not only screws the players, but it screws the fans who suffer with agony at the unjust actions of a blind umpire. Instant Replay would fix this.

How should Major League Baseball Use Instant Replay? Homeruns Is a good start, but I also want to see it used for "fair/foul" or "catch/trap ball" as well.

Here is two examples from this season of why Major League Baseball should use replays for catch/trap ball:
From April 5,2008: Braves Vs Mets: From Braves.Com:
"With the bases loaded and one out, third-base umpire Bruce Dreckman ruled that a diving Mark Kotsay caught Jose Reyes' sinking liner in shallow center. Immediately, Kotsay threw the ball back to the infield to seemingly retire Angel Pagan, who had raced to third base without tagging and even momentarily passed Ryan Church, who didn't advance after seeing Dreckman's out call.

After short consultation, the umpires reversed the call, gave Reyes his RBI single and advanced each of the runners one base. Cox conceded the right call was made and indicated the first umpire error prevented him from arguing about the fact that Pagan had passed Church."


Here Are Two Examples of Major League Baseball Needing Replay for a Homerun:
On Sunday night, umpires at Yankee Stadium reversed their correct call and concluded a shot by Carlos Delgado of the Mets was foul.


A night later, umpires in Houston mistakenly 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 a three run inside-the-park home run anyway.


And on Wednesday night, a ball hit by Alex Rodriguez that struck a stairway beyond the outfield fence and bounced back into the outfield was ruled a double when it should have been a home run.


If You're Going to take steroids away from the players, then at least give glasses to the umpires!

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