Instand Replay

It's only a matter of time before major league baseball has instant replay in some form. Over the past couple of weeks the issue has gained a lot of momentum on the countless homerun calls botched by umpires. Allegledy they are going to try it out in some Independent Arizona league...so who knows when it will (or if it will) get to the majors. But I believe that it will happen at some point in time.

I would say that the idea of instant replay in baseball doesn't sit right with me. Ideally it shouldn't be needed and really hasn't been needed. I'm no baseball purist (I'm not even sure if that term really has a concrete meaning anymore) but the idea of instant replay...in some aspect...runs counter to the feeling of baseball.

But on the other hand I would not be opposed to instant replay for homerun calls. My main reason for this is that...you, the viewer at home...shouldn't no more than the umpires on the field. Of the past several botched homerun calls...you knew within thirty seconds that it was or wasn't a homerun. Whether a ball is a homerun or not is definitely more cut and dry than whether a runner is safe at first or if a certain pitch was a strike or not. That is why I would never be in favor of instant replay in other instances. The fear of MLB is that once you have instant replay for one thing...than it will only be a matter of time before you have it for something else.

I don't buy the argument that instant replay would (in disputed homerun calls) would slow the game down. Most of the time on those calls the umpires waste several minutes arguing with managers (normally from both teams). So I don't think it would slow down the game. Maybe just enlarge the umpiring crew to have a replay specialist that sits in the booth and the problem would be solved.

I'm guessing that umpires are resistant to this happening because in their view that it's some sort of indictment in that they can't do their job properly. But I don't really think it's that. The main reason that some of these calls are not getting called right is due to the kinks of most of these new "retro" designed fields (although two of the calls occurred at Yankee stadium). It's definitely made the umpire's job harder...thus more difficult. Instant replay would solve these problems.

In essence, I'm not a big fan of potentially having instant replay in baseball but I wouldn't be opposed to it with regard to homerun calls.