Instant Replay
It’s been a while since my last blog post here. I’ve got a few in the works about my travels over the summer to a few different parks and cities, but I could not pass up letting you know my take on instant replay.
Over the past several days, the ALDS and NLDS have been taking place. There have been several ”blown” calls from the umpires. One of the highest in notoriety would be the Buster Posey steal of second base that led to the only run of the game. In this play, Buster was called safe when he was out by a good foot or so. Since that, many have called for instant replay to seriously looked at over the winter break. Well here is my view….
I say no instant replay. Yep, none! No review of a blown call at second, home, first, catch or no catch, or even a home-run. I’m sure at this point you may be laying on the floor or yelling at a computer screen calling me an idiot. But, give me the next few minutes to explain my point then feel free to swing away.
I’m not a casual observer of baseball, I’m much much more. Baseball is pretty much all I watch. I love the game to death. In my mind there’s nothing better. But that’s not why I think there should be no instant replay. I think there should be no instant replay because of the human element. You have players, coaches, and umpires on the field during the game. If you add instant replay to the mix, it gives one entity an option to change their mind or “fix” their “mistake”. A player doesn’t have an option to change or correct a botched play. A manager doesn’t have an opportunity to reverse his decision to leave a pitcher in when he thinks he should pull him. In other words, they don’t get a red flag to throw and ask for a do over for their “mistake”. I don’t think the umpires should have the ability to fix their mistake either.
We’re all humans, and we all make mistakes. I would love to belive there is a time machine where we could go back and correct mistakes we make, but we can’t. I know, you’ll say we have the technology to institute instant replay, but that just adds to the problem. Let’s leave it as is. Mistakes are part of the game and it must be allowed that if a coach and player can make mistakes, so can umpires.