Baseball, America’s Pastime, a game rich with tradition and full of nostalgia, has always been resistant to change in an ever-advancing 21-century. MLB finally did itself some favors by enacting replay reviews before the 2014 season and then expanding on the review system before this season. Almost any play can be reviewed now, including, but not limited to, ground-rule doubles, boundary calls, force plays, tag plays, and catch or trap calls on balls hit in the air.
MLB And The Replay System
The new rules and expanded replays were put in place to streamline the game, get calls right, and help out umpires. While reviewed plays are upheld as called more often than not, the system has thus far still been deeply flawed and marred by egregious errors. This unfortunate fact was brought further into the spotlight Wednesday night during the Dodgers-Cubs game. With two outs in the 9th, Chris Denorfia stroked a ball into the outfield and tried to leg out a double. The throw beat a sliding Denorfia and he was called out on the field to end the ballgame. Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon decided to use his managers challenge to review the play, and it seemed pretty clear that Denorfia got his hand to the bag before he was tagged out. The call on the field of an out was maintained, however. The umpires concluded that there was not definitive evidence to overture the initial call. After the game, Maddon was quoted as saying, “To say there was nothing definitive right there, I cannot disagree with more strongly. I have no idea why they would say that. It makes zero sense to me whatsoever. I’m just being honest, folks. It made no sense…. It just screams for an independent group there to really research the video.”
Joe Maddon had reason to be a little flustered after the game. Denorfia was safe; after watching the replay just once, that was abundantly clear. Far too often this season have incorrect calls have been maintained after replay due to inconclusive evidence. Inconclusive evidence is simply a cop-out for the umpires when a play is really close. Some plays are too close to overturn, but almost all plays are conclusive one way or another. Fans and teams have been left wondering what the umpires back at the replay hub are looking at too many times. Nationally televised games have about a dozen different angles from which a play may be viewed, and even local games have at least a few angles. Either way, there are more than enough angles for umpires to get nearly every single call correct. There is no excuse for the blown calls that have been on display this season.
In his quote to the Chicago Tribune, Maddon goes on to say that umpires back at the replay center shouldn’t be the ones reviewing and ruling on the calls, and he is 100 percent correct. The people deciding the call shouldn’t be a rotating crew of umpires who have personal relationships with the umpires on the field. They are part of the same professional brotherhood and it is only human nature for them to side with their contemporaries when a play is close. MLB should hire independent umpires or other personnel to rule on reviewed calls to eliminate any potential for bias.
Another problem with the replay system is the time it takes for some plays to be ruled on. While MLB has accomplished its goal of reducing the time of games with several rule changes implemented this season, reviews that should take 30 seconds have taken several minutes at times. The slowdown of an already slowly-paced game is even more absurd when that much time is taken to watch a play over and over again and the correct call still isn’t made. According to SB Nation, in a June 15 game between the Angles and Diamondbacks, one review took 3:42 and a second review took 4:50, both calls were incorrectly upheld. There is no excuse for incorrect calls with the technology afforded to umpires, and there is no conceivable reason for the replay umpires to still get a call wrong when they take eons to rule on a play and watch the replay a million times.
MLB needs to make it a priority to reel in their umpires and fix the blatant problems with the replay rulings, or robots need to make every call and become the new-age of umpires. Seriously, I love the human element of baseball as much as the next guy, but I love correct calls even more.
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