It’s 2012. Technology has expanded to the point where there are innovations in nearly every facet of our lives to make things easier and more convenient. We have voice-controlled phones. We have watches that can monitor our health levels. We put a freaking rover on Mars. So why can’t we have instant replay in baseball?
In the eighth inning of game two of the ALCS between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Sunday, Detroit second baseman Omar Infante was clearly tagged out at second by Robinson Cano after overrunning the base.
Well, at least it was clear to everyone except second base umpire Jeff Nelson. Nelson ruled Infante safe, and what should have been the third out of the inning was turned into a runner in scoring position for the Tigers. Detroit would go on to score two runs in that inning after the blown call, extending their lead to 3-0 going into the final frame.
Nobody can say that had instant reply been used, the Yankees would have won the game—all the instant replay in the world isn’t going to wipe out Alex Rodriguez’s pathetic 0-for-18 postseason line against right handers—but isn’t it time that the MLB joined us in the 21st century?
After the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi made a plea for the MLB to finally implement the usage of instant replay so that these potentially game-changing mistakes can be rectified.
“I am not saying we win the game if the call [was] right,” Girardi said. “But in this day and age there is too much at stake, and the technology is available. That’s what our country has done—we have evolved technology to make things better.”
To his credit, Nelson admitted that he made the wrong call after the game, but the damage had already been done.
The MLB is the only one of America’s four major sporting leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL) that does not regularly use an instant replay system across the board.
Baseball is a sport that has a history of resistance to change. Traditionalists claim that the game should be played the way that it has always been, regardless of technological innovations that could improve the game.
It wasn’t until 2008 that the league finally allowed replay to address “boundary calls,” which include verifying whether a home run actually left the park and if it was fair or foul. Compare that with the NFL, which implemented its first instant replay system in 1986 and began to allow coaches challenges in 1999.
In the wake of umpire Jim Joyce blowing a call at first base that cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010, Ross Douthat wrote a column for the New York Times outlining the traditionalist’s case for keeping instant replay out of baseball.
“To avoid the extraordinary bad calls, you have to start overturning the quotidian bad calls, the gaffes and brain cramps that have always been part of the warp and woof of the game and that have never detracted a whit from anyone’s enjoyment of it,” Douthat wrote. “And I’m pretty sure that would be a mistake.”
It would be a mistake to make the right call? It would go against baseball’s history to make sure that calls were being made accurately?
All I can say in response to this is a hearty “so what?”
Yes, human error is a part of baseball—that will never change. Balls and strikes will always be argued between players and umpires, and that’s fine, but for egregiously blown calls like those made by Nelson or Joyce, a change needs to be made.
Like Girardi said, nobody knows whether or not the Yankees would have won game two if the correct call were made at second base. But wouldn’t it be worth it to find out?
Come join us in the 21st century, baseball. I think you’ll like it here.
Do you think the MLB is making the right move by not extensively using instant replay? Is Girardi in the right to say something about it? Email Matt at sports@dailycardinal.com.
