Time to grow up, baseball
Baseball needs to evolve. Like a short giraffe, it is beautiful but flawed, a game whipped by a glorious tradition that staunchly opposes change. I’m not calling for metal bats, a fourth strike, or any exorbitant rule change. I just want to see the best team win — I want instant replay.
I’m fed up with people saying bad calls are “part of the game” and that instant replay would eliminate human error. What’s so great about mistakes? In an age when my cell phone can find me the best seafood restaurant in Anchorage, there’s no excuse for bad calls.
Every October in recent memory has had questionable, series-altering calls. From umpire Don Denkinger snatching a World Series victory from the Cardinals in 1985 to Jeffrey Maier corralling Derek Jeter’s would-be double in the 1996 American League Championship Series, controversies are as much a part of October baseball as Tim McCarver. But they shouldn’t be. And while the book may be closed on these controversies, fans deserve better.
Talk to any San Diego Padres fan and they’ll tell you that Matt Holliday never touched home plate in the 14th inning of that wild card play-in game. Hell, ask any Rockies fan — they’ll give the same answer. He didn’t. Not even close. The proof is there, on video, in the press box, on my iPhone and shining on the big screen in Denver. But the Rockies got into the playoffs and even advanced to the World Series (no, really, they did).
This is no diatribe against umpires or the sanctity of the baseball. As someone who’s umpired before, I’ll admit to countless bad calls. And I regret each one. Instant replay would have saved me the relentless harassment of coaches and parents who claimed better vantage points than my own. As an ump, I would love instant replay.
What’s more, the game wouldn’t lose a single fan if it allowed instant replay. It wouldn’t start some technological chain reaction leading to magnetic gloves or ball-locating sunglasses and — breathe, Mr. Schilling
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