MLB Does Not Need Replay

2010 June 04

Was he out? Yeah, he was out. But instituting replay in Major League Baseball is a knee-jerk, over-reaction to the blown call last night in the Tigers-Indians game. The goal of instant replay as I understand it, is to get a potentially outcome-altering play correct. Let's be honest with each other for a moment: This play—safe or out—had no impact on the outcome of the game. It only obscured what is merely a statistical anomaly in MLB. Furthermore, for this one instance where replay could have been used to overturn an obviously incorrect call, I will have to be subjected to dozens of safe/out, catch/no-catch, fair/foul, balk/no-balk, etc. replays on utterly inconsequential plays in the game.

I have a half-baked theory on this. If you're paying attention to the mainstream media these days, it is obvious to you that modern journalism is nothing but sensational voyeurism or agenda driving. Usually both. Reporters and their media outlets insist on being the story, rather than reporting on it. (This is mostly off-the-cuff, so I'm not going to get into specific examples. Grant me the leeway you would an editorial cartoon).

Sports media are no different. Game officials make calls in a split second. Sometimes incorrectly. You make a lot of bad decisions too, so he who is without sin... The talking heads on radio and television enjoy and take advantage of the ability to watch a play, frame-by-frame and insist that they, not the official standing 3 feet away from the play, can make the proper judgement. The media wants to control the game from their comfortable ivory tower, with infinite hind-sight and total lack of consequence for their judgements. They want to be the story, not report on it. That crooked umpire with the untrustworthy sneer and handlebar mustache stole the perfect game from that poor player. Why, if we could have just used our television cameras we could have prevented this travesty!

Replay makes sports feel like a high-stakes civil litigation trial, and Tim McCarver is the prosecuting attorney. But I think the most compelling argument against replay is that, if the NFL is any example, the officials still get the call wrong!