The Eyes Are the First to Go

Starting tomorrow (Thurs) baseball will join the ranks of all modern sports and institute instant replay. No longer will the decisions be up to those who are paid to make them, the umpires. This will definitely serve to clear up the confusion of controversial plays that have to be called on-the-spot or at least agreed upon in a conference shortly after the play in question. Managers won’t be able to watch tape and argue balls and strikes, but balls that bend either fair or foul or players running outside the baseline will be up for review.

Anyone who thinks baseball games are too long to begin with are really going to upset with this new rule that will see managers and umpires spending more and more time watching replays on the field and bringing up every minor play that one of them disagrees with. Call me old-fashion, but calling plays on the field in real time was always part of the nostalgia that baseball represents. With modern day advances like inflated salaries and inflated egos, it was nice to have an important piece of the game that still represented the old way of doing things.

I’m sure there will be certain plays where I am happy to have instant replay and others where I will curse the modern technology for ruining a game for my favorite team. But I think some of the class that baseball had will be lost in this updated refereeing and not leaving the call up to the professionals.

On Sunday, I watched AJ Pierzynski pull an “NBA” when he threw himself to the ground during a rundown between second and third, and drew an interference call and was awarded third base instead of being called out at second. He ended up scoring the game winning run, all on a play that he falsified for his benefit. Maybe we’ll see less of this when the new rules are set in place, but I doubt it.