By Jeff
Can we please expand video replay in Major League Baseball? There is no excuse to allow bad calls to affect the outcome of games. It seems like such an obvious change that would improve the game, there is a very strong contingent of baseball fans and executives who fight replay at every turn.
Last night was another example of why we need change. Jerry Meals was the umpire and he was in terrible position. The poor positioning led to a horrible call in a one-run game. There is no guarantee the Boston Red Sox would have won if Daniel Nava was correctly called safe, but the game would have been tied in the eighth inning if the correct call was made.
See for yourself.
Anyone looking at that video could see in seconds that Nava was safe and this game should have been tied.
I hear a lot of opponents of replay complain that replay would slow baseball down even more. Well, what about all the arguing and ejections that happen after questionable calls? How much time does that waste? What about the guy that has to readjust his battling gloves after every pitch? Hell, sometimes they don't even see a pitch, call time and then readjust their batting gloves. It's ridiculous.
Replay isn't perfect. There are examples of umpires in baseball and referees in football making the wrong call even after seeing replay. There is no way to completely eliminate human error in sports. But that is a poor argument against replay. It may not result in every call being correct, but it will certainly get more calls right. Isn't that what we as fans want?
I don't want every play to be reviewable. Make logical rules and I'll be happy. Give a team two challenges per game and make sure only specific types of plays are eligible to be challenged. There will be struggles in the beginning, but most improvements in the sports world have growing pains.
If MLB isn't going to give fans replay, at least get exile Jerry Meals to the Frontier League. Pirates fans may recall he is the man responsible for the worst call in recent Pirates memory.
You make a great point about the arguing likely taking longer than the replay itself. Why people refuse to believe this I don't know. Meals even said he messed up. Why not expand replay or at the very least, give the managers 1 challenge per game to clean this up. Instead of putting umps like Meals in an impossible position, why not use this to help them out?
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