Major League umpire Jim Joyce blew a call at first base in the Cleveland at Detroit game on Wednesday night. Indians shortstop Jason Donald was called safe on an infield hit - but he was out by half a step. Donald would have been the last out of a perfect game pitched by Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga. As is the case with any high-profile blown call, this raises the question of expanding instant replay in baseball.
Now, we don't think baseball should expand its replay to NFL proportions, but something needs to be done. There have been many calls over the last few years that have been key to a game or even a playoff series. Major League Baseball needs to expand its replay from just fair/foul, in/out home run reviews. Better guidelines would be a key play in a save situation, tie game, or extraordinary circumstances. That last criteria would cover perfect games and no-hitters where the leading team is ahead by a lot. The "key play" would, of course, be up to the discretion of the umpires - but isn't everything?
Unfortunately, expanding instant replay wouldn't fix all the Joe West - oops, we mean umpire problems in baseball. Watching a play on TV is no cure for a bad attitude.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ball game over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
Hydra, you could have also called your entry "Imperfection Raises Questions". If you think that umpires’ blown calls are not just “part of the game”, but rather – and I agree with you – that it’s more important that umpires get critical calls right, then baseball should do more. I’m not sure I like the idea of the umpires deciding what a “key play” is, though. The same missed call, if it had occurred in the first inning, would also have ruined a perfect game. Why not give each team one appeal per game and let both managers decide which play is important? That would challenge the managers’ skills and limiting the number of appeals to a maximum of two per game would not lengthen games too much and further upset you-know-who. Cheers, Germankee.
ReplyDeleteGermankee-
ReplyDeleteYour point about manager "challenges" (for lack of a better word) is interesting - there's no reason why it shouldn't work. The problem is it would "NFL-ize" the game by giving some authority over the umpires to the managers. We're in favor of getting more calls right, but we don't want the game to get too far into the 21st century.
Plus, there's not much need to expand instant replay further than the final three innings - no manager would "challenge" a blown call (nor umpire review one) in the first inning because a pitcher had gotten the first one or two outs. There have been many, many pitchers in Major League history with perfect games going in the first inning. Only eighteen have gone all the way.
-Hydra