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Instant replay in baseball: Should we?
Yesterday, controversy rose again. Carlos Delgado hit a (should have been) home run that was ruled, incorrectly, foul. The topic of instant replay has reared its head once again, during a year where the issue of instant replay has started to be explored.
In my opinion, instant replay should only be used to decide fair/foul or over/under the wall calls, but if we open that door, doesn’t it stand to reason that eventually, safe/out plays will come under fire to be able to review? And if that comes to pass, what’s to stop strike/ball calls from being reviewed? It’s a slippery slope, and I don’t want Terry Francona throwing out the challenge flag five years from now to challenge a strike call on David Ortiz in the World Series in the bottom of the ninth to run the count to 2-2.
The integrity of the game is at stake, and how the instant replay issue is solved will dictate how sacrosanct baseball will remain.
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on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 11:27 am and is filed under Boston Red Sox / Evan Brunell.
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9 Responses to “Instant replay in baseball: Should we?”
May 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I am very much in favor of fair/foul, over/under for home runs only. On balls in play (like a line drive down the line) I don’t think you should allow challenges as there is no way to play the play out to it’s conclusion. The same can be said for plays at first. And balls/strikes should be 100% computerized before there is any “replay” involvement. And that should happen….never!
I would add HBP as a potential reviewable item however…
May 19th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
No! No! No!
Instant replay has not helped football - it’s just become another uncertainty - and it would hurt baseball by driving away fans and making the game less and less like something boys play in a sandlot and more and more like something CEO’s do in a boardroom.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I’m a fan of instant replay. I think it should be used for fair/foul & over/under the wall situations only. Balls and strikes should be continued to balled by the umps. Each manager should have 1 instant replay call a game and they can pick and chose when they use it. Just my 2 cents……
May 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I’ll add that it should only be at the umps discretion…not at the managers….
May 19th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Like others have mention, I think instant replay should be limited to fair/foul, over the wall/not calls. But I wouldn’t mind safe/out calls being challenged if it was part of a limited system. Give a manager one challenge a game, if he wants to debate a safe or not call (only when the bases are empty?) he can do so, but then that is it. Balls and strikes are off limits. I’d ultimately be satisfied if it was just fair/foul/hr/off the wall.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
It absolutely has to be at the umpire’s discretion… I don’t think safe/out calls should be part of instant replay. As for over/under the wall, if it’s ruled under the wall and they signaled over, and it was actually under, who’s to say Jacoby couldn’t have gotten a triple? Who’s to say Papi could have legged it to second?
May 19th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I’d be in favor of instant replay of fair/foul and out/safe on the bases. It would take like 20 seconds longer and we’d make sure all the calls are correct. We need this.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I think over/under wall and fair/foul on HRs are the only way to use this. I’d say these are the football equivalent of replay on field goals. Otherwise I’d say that baseball replay would bring an admittedly slow game to a grinding halt.
Should totally be at the umpire’s discretion too.
May 19th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Instant replay would rarely make a difference in a game. It would forever change the game, and once it has begun, it is a slippery slope to challenging balls and strikes. I like Chops answer. Keep it sandlot style. Keep it human.
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