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As technology has been introduced into a number of sports during the past several decades, outcomes of games have been changed as plays are reviewed with the use of instant replay. Why not baseball?
Being only human, referees and umpires can never note every detail and action during each play on the field or court. But with the introduction of instant replays into many professional sports, plays can be reviewed to ensure the accuracy of close calls.
What most professional leagues have done is install a type of review system or “challenge,” so that, when deemed necessary, the referee(s) can watch an instant replay of a disputed call in order to make sure that it was fair and correct.
In football, there is a system in which a coach can challenge a ruling on the field if he thinks the wrong call was made against his team. The coach throws a red flag onto the field, and the referees have to review the play. If the coach is right, the ruling changes, but if the coach is wrong, his or her team is penalized by losing a timeout. This system is both efficient and fair, and could be modified and implemented into the game of baseball.
In baseball, the use of “instant replay” was installed into the game just this past summer, but it is used strictly to review disputed home runs. Frequently, mistakes are made in home run calls; whether the home run was actually a foul or it cleared the wall before bouncing back onto the field, these disputes are the cause of argument and outrage from coaches and fans alike.
But home runs are not the only calls that may be seen as controversial; there are many other plays that more often receive poor or debatable calls. Imagine a tied game, bottom of the ninth, or a player from third base stealing home. Situations like these could decide the outcome of games, and if no one is sure of what exactly happened, it may be up to one of the umpires to make a guess and give one player the benefit of the doubt.
I am not saying that there should be a replay system installed for every play. However, when an important call is clearly debatable, instant replay should be used.
Some people say that installing instant replay and other such technology would ruin the tradition of baseball. However, using technology for the sake of fair game is certainly not damaging the tradition. Instant replay should play a bigger part in baseball in order to maintain fairness.
Instead of relying solely on the umpires, the use of instant replay could ensure fairness and give us all certainty that the right call was made. Why not have the instant replay tool play a bigger part in America’s favorite game, so that we are certain that the outcome of each game is accurate?
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mpic • Feb 7, 2009 at 6:12 PM
It definitely needs to play a bigger part. anyone who watches a lot of baseball knows umpires constantly get calls wrong – and i’m not saying it’s their fault, some plays are just extremely difficult to call, including home run plays (which they already have replay for), and particularly steal attempts. Take a look at all the steals in baseball — many times the umpire has no real clear view of the tag. Instant replay should really become a bigger part of baseball, with certain limitations so it cant be taken advantage of and significantly slow down the game.
Anon/gif/ • Feb 5, 2009 at 3:47 PM
grr… I like the concept, it means that there would be minimal cheating but baseball is already 3 hours in length per game, and adding cameras to every individual play would draw the game out to 5 hours… They do it in other sports because they have the time, like in american football, there’s about 15 minutes per quarter, but as we saw in the Superbowl not too recently, there could be up to 30 minutes of actual ‘game time’ when the clock says 3…………………
No • Feb 4, 2009 at 9:17 PM
I completely disagree with Dan, I think that there are very important plays in baseball that can also determine a game. Let’s say a base runner steals second, and the umpire calls him out, but he was really safe, and the next batter hit a double… what then? I think that there should be something similar to football, like a challenge from the coach that limits the use of review.
Dan L • Feb 3, 2009 at 10:22 AM
I disagree with this,
I think that baseball as a sport needs to have an umpire ruling the game, not a video camera. Otherwise everything will be disputed, a runner down the 1st base line, a tag at 3rd base, everything will be reviewed. I say it is only and purely used to determine homeruns. In football, you need a system because 1 play can change the whole game, and it is way to hard to tell when you have 10 people all bunched in 1 area and you have to watch all of them (meaning the line), but in baseball, the most you will have is 3. No replay in baseball, it will ruin the sport