Instant Replay AKA "The Jeffrey Maier Rule"

[blueberryale77]

Unfortunately, it's a little over a decade too late.

There may have been a thread on here about instant replay a long time ago, but I can't remember/find one recently. Anyway, the GM's just took a vote on it...

For the first time Tuesday, baseball general managers recommended instant replay be used to help umpires make close calls.

The recommendation, by a 25-5 vote, was limited to boundary calls -- whether potential home runs are fair or foul, whether balls go over fences or hit the top and bounce back, and whether fans have interfered with a possible homer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3096923

I think this is a good thing. There might come a time in the future when they should incorporate it into more types of calls, but this is the most obvious way to use it, won't interfere with the rights of umpires too much, and I think it's a good idea to start small. Thoughts?

[scOtt]

I agree. In that limited scope, I think it's a good idea. Now if it doesn't take ten minutes for a ruling, it'll work, if it does...

[blueberryale77]

I agree. In that limited scope, I think it's a good idea. Now if it doesn't take ten minutes for a ruling, it'll work, if it does...

It already takes 10 minutes for a ruling plus 10 minutes for one or both managers to stage their made-for-tv tantrum. Maybe this will cut down on the length of one or both of those.

[erb8472]

I don't like the idea of replay in Baseball.

[Elrod]

Baseball GMs recommend instant replay

By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer 19 minutes ago

For the first time Tuesday, baseball general managers recommended instant replay be used to help umpires make difficult decisions. The recommendation, by a 25-5 vote, was limited to boundary calls — whether potential home runs are fair or foul, whether balls go over fences or hit the top and bounce back, and whether fans interfere with possible homers.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig opposes the use of replays but said last month he was willing to let GMs examine the issue.

"I don't like instant replay because I don't like all the delays. I think it sometimes creates as many problems or more than it solves," Selig said then.

But Jimmie Lee Solomon, an executive vice president in the commissioner's office, thinks Selig's stance has changed a bit recently.

"He seemed to be softer, at least on the consideration of the subject," Solomon said Tuesday.

He added it was unclear how the proposal will proceed and acknowledged there is "glacier-like movement in baseball" when it comes to innovation. Solomon said if Selig is willing, the commissioner probably would run the idea by owners. The plan needs approval from the players' association and umpires.

Solomon said GMs favored having a Major League Baseball official in a central place with access to all camera angles. If there is a disputed call, that official would be contacted and would view the television replay to make a decision.

"We have a very technologically savvy group of GMs," Solomon said. "I was surprised that we had five teams that said no."

Solomon also said that to speed up games, baseball was considering limiting the number of times a hitter could step out of the batter's box during an at-bat and the number of times any player could visit the mound.

[Elrod]

I think this is lame. I like that baseball doesn't have instant replays because it seems to give it more character. It's not so mechanistic. It makes it more real, more alive, organic.

As far as the umpire viewing a television with all of the camera angles, well hell, they might as well just get rid of all the umpires. What's baseball turning into, a totalitarian sport with Big Brother watching over!?

Just my 2 cents.

[blueberryale77]

Welcome to the board. Please check for threads on the same topic before starting a new one... keeps it less cluttered, ya know?

http://www.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54797

[Elrod]

Sorry, it's just that the article just came out less than 30 minutes ago, so I thought I'd post it.

[forest leech]

I don't like the idea of a game being ruined by an umpire's incorrect judgement.

[Frobby]

How many times in a season do you see a disputed call over fair/foul homers, over the fence, or fan interference? Maybe once every 10-20 games? This is a tempest in a teapot. I don't like instant replay but this is going to happen so rarely that it hardly matters.

[wickedwitch]

I still haven't gotten over the Jeffery Maier incident, so I'm happy this may finally go through.

It already takes 10 minutes for a ruling plus 10 minutes for one or both managers to stage their made-for-tv tantrum. Maybe this will cut down on the length of one or both of those.

Yep. Although I'm gald it's happening after Earl Weaver retired.

[Migrant Redbird]

How many times in a season do you see a disputed call over fair/foul homers, over the fence, or fan interference? Maybe once every 10-20 games? This is a tempest in a teapot. I don't like instant replay but this is going to happen so rarely that it hardly matters.

I wouldn't be surprised if as many as half the games played in a season are influenced enough by umpiring calls to affect the outcome of the game. There's no way to quantitatively measure it, but it's difficult to watch a game without seeing a pitcher lose a strikeout on a pitch that was actually good or a hitter get a third strike called on a ball that the overhead camera view showed was 3-5 inches off the plate. Most of the time, the game probably isn't going to turn on one such bad call, but plays like that can change a pitcher's momentum and make the difference between an early exit or managing to get through 6 or 7 innings with the lead. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that many close games turn on such plays. Over the long run, those kinds of plays will even out, but they could easily make the difference in a tight division race or in the post season.

I think that providing the plate umpire electronic assistance on ball/strike calls would probably do more good than instant replays. However, if they do have a replay official, he needs to be reviewing the play as soon as it's over, even before the managers are out there protesting a call. A lot of arguments could be truncated if the crew chief were able to tell the manager, "Sorry, but the replay official has already reviewed the play and he advises me that the umpire made the correct call." In other cases, the crew chief could get the replay official's verdict and reverse a call before the manager was able to really get going.

A lot of it depends upon how the system is implemented; I'd hate to see the kinds of delays that occur in the NFL. We fans often have watched a replay and decided for ourselves whether a play was correct or not long before the arguments on the field have ended. If the replay official has a very good technician cueing up the best camera angles for him, he may often be able to complete his review and advise the crew chief before the arguments really get started. In that case, it would be a great boon for baseball. Even if the Yankees would have won without Jeffrey Maier, there will still be fans who are convinced he turned that series around, just as there are still a lot of Cardinals fans who blame Don Denkinger for the outcome of the 1985 World Series.

[Winning_Season]

I don't know, manager tantrums make some of the best u tube videos

[RShack]

I think it's fine, given where they've drawn the line constraining what it will be used for. I think it makes perfect sense for that. The thing that makes me nervous is the danger of moving where that line is, once replay's foot is in the door. I don't want robot umps.

If they do this, I bet it won't be halfway into the first season before somebody starts making noise about giving managers red flags to throw on the field. And then some crucial pennant-race game or postseason game with immense consequences will be determined by something in the 9th inning that replay clearly shows to be a bad call... and then what's gonna happen? They've already got everything set up to use replay, and there will be howls of protest about how they just need to use what they've already got. Once it's there, how long before they move the line about when to use it?

[longflyball]

The AP article on this mentioned that the GM's are also considering voting to have umpires enforce the rule against batters spending so much time outside of the box during at-bats.