Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 23, 2008
The Replay Argument

Rob Neyer (subscription required) appears to come out in favor of instant replay for home runs:

It's now pretty clear that we'll have instant replay soon, perhaps even next season, and it only seems more necessary after seeing three missed home-run calls in four days (two of them at Yankee Stadium). You know, 20 years ago these calls would have been made, there would have been an argument, and a day later everything's forgotten. But now that's just not possible, not with all the cameras in the ballparks and all the different places to see the resulting video. MLB's not being pulled into technology; the technology's already here and it's pushing MLB. Is this a good thing? Well, let me ask you this ... Today, when a player hits a long fly ball that might or might not have been a home run, everybody in the world knows exactly what happened ... except the four guys on the field who are supposed to know exactly what happened.

At this point, the crew chief can carry a wireless PDA and have the video streamed to him. He doesn't even need to leave the field.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:22 AM | Umpires | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Once they actually track the entire path of the baseball then the computer would know exactly where the ball landed. Right now they only record the position, accelerations and velocities at release and the location the ball passes home plate. The rest is all calculated using trigonometry and physics. The technology just isn't good enough to track the entire trajectory of the pitch and batted ball just yet.

They should do it like hockey and have a booth beside the home dugout where the umpires can call New York and get a ruling on the play. In fact, the entire 'official scorer' position could be moved to New York and done entirely by video.

Posted by: Andrew at May 23, 2008 10:45 AM

Why New York? Why not Fargo?

Posted by: Tor at May 23, 2008 11:52 AM

New York is where MLB headquarters is located. In the NHL, all replays rulings are done at the official headquarters.

Posted by: Adam at May 23, 2008 12:30 PM

Not sure where I read it the other day; but I saw a suggestion for having a 5th umpire to double as the replay judge and the Official Scorer. (This should lessen 'hometown calls' that local OS's are known for providing; which I know is a whole other subject. But 2 birds; 1 stone...)

Posted by: Crafty Lefty at May 23, 2008 12:55 PM

Can I get a movement going to stop calling it "instant" replay?

In the NFL, replay reviews take about 3 days to complete and are right about 50 percent of the time. There is NOTHING instant about this.

Posted by: Josh in DC at May 23, 2008 01:39 PM

I wouldn't mind this so much but for the fact it's being brought about because of the damn Yankees. If this would have happened in that same timespan to the Rays or Marlins or Rangers or A's or Twins or Pirates or Orioles or Royals, etc., MLB would be doing it's usual nothing. But my god, if something happens to the Yankees...

Posted by: John Royal at May 23, 2008 02:58 PM

The Yankees were the benefactors in one of these calls, so I'm not exactly sure what your issue is. Sounds like you might have a severe inferiority complex.

Posted by: Adam at May 23, 2008 03:24 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?