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Baseball's Replay Rule: Do It Right, Or Not At All

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - If baseball's new replay rule had been around 10 days ago, two really bad calls that went against the Rays would still just be two really bad calls.

B.J. Upton still would have been out for turning toward second against the Angels, no matter that the replay showed umpire Jerry Meals must have been dreaming of a weekend in Tahiti before he hollered "OUT" to the utter amazement of just about everyone. That was his story and he stuck to it.

And Chicago's A.J. Pierzynski still would be standing at third base after Willy Aybar of the Rays was flagged for phantom interference Sunday, even though replays showed Pierzynski probably should get an Academy Award nomination for the best acting job by someone who was about to run his team out of an inning.

Take it back farther if you want.

Don Denkinger's infamous blown call at first base still would cost the St. Louis Cardinals the 1985 World Series. The new rule applies only to disputed home runs, so for everything else it doesn't matter how awful the call or how high the stakes. Baseball is willing to go only so far to get it right.

It's silly, of course, to do this halfway. It practically guarantees that a playoff series will turn on a blown call that could have been corrected by replay, karma being the irresistible force that it is. Either do it right or don't do it at all.

Tepid Step

Why such a timid, tepid step, you ask?

Well, mostly they say technology shouldn't replace humans - a noble concept, except, well, baseball installed QuesTec machines to look over umpires' shoulders on balls and strikes. I guess it's just a question of degrees.

They also say too many replays would slow the game.

That's rich.

Hitters step out after every pitch and adjust their batting gloves, belts, pants and shirt. Pitchers walk around the mound after each throw, tug on their cap, fiddle with the glove, paw the ground with their cleats. They drag out the time between innings so guys dressed up as soft drink bottles can race down the left-field line in an oh-so-subtle marketing ploy.

But replay would slow the game? More importantly, ensuring that critical calls are the proper ones would slow the game?

"My opposition to unlimited instant replay is still very much in play," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "I really think that the game has prospered for well over a century now doing things the way we did it."

Interesting way of putting that. Selig led the charge for this baby step of progress, even to the unusual step of starting it up in the middle of pennant races. That's not something you do if you really believe the game is just fine as it is.

Truth is, baseball needs replay - all the way.

It needs a way to get it right on home runs. It needs a way to fix wacko calls.

"When I was managing, so many times I went to have my argument with an umpire. I'd say, 'Why don't you ask the guy at first base; maybe he had a better angle.' The guy goes, 'Naw, I saw it right.' Yet they turn around and tell you that the most important thing is to get it right," Rays special adviser Don Zimmer said.

"Well, let's get it right."

Policy Is Wrong

So let's go back to last Sunday in Chicago, shall we?

Forget that the Rays should have won the game in regulation; their own mistakes let the lead get away. But now you've two top teams in a game with playoff implications and it turned because the umps got it wrong.

That was bad enough. Now, imagine that call in the seventh game of the World Series. The outrage would have been global.

"If they get together and put their heads under a screen, and watched A.J. throw his arm out and not hit Willy, and get off balance and fall down, I don't think you can look at that and say there was obstruction on Aybar in any way, shape, or fashion," Rays outfielder Gabe Gross said. "If every call was reviewable, they would have reviewed that."

And yet, Rays manager Joe Maddon - who argued vehemently on that occasion - smiled and said, "No, no, no" when asked if he'd favor a video review of such situations.

Well, Joe Maddon is a smart man and cosmic thinker, but he's wrong in this case.

You can't have a policy that says we'll make sure some calls are right, but not all of them. Not when you have a way to fix mistakes.

Baseball is asking for disaster with this. Given the way things have gone lately, anyone want to bet against it?

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