Ron's Commentary

The more and more I watched the baseball playoffs and World Series; the angrier I got at the umpires. Let me first say I understand they’re human and mistakes are going to made. That’s acceptable to me during the regular season, but NOT acceptable in the post-season. And, especially not acceptable when there’s technology available to help remove all those umpiring “human mistakes.” And, to take it one step further, I get really upset when Commissioner Bud Selig goes against the fans, the media and commonsense in not embracing technology that can make baseball better and the outcome of the games and playoffs credible.

The most glaring mistakes in the playoffs and World Series could have easily been corrected with instant replay, and it would not have been intrusive to the games as Selig claims for his not wanting to use instant replay. Often one look at the replay and you can see the call that should have been made. In the Yankee-Angel ALCS series, instant replay would have shown Nick Swisher was picked off second base, instead of the umpire’s call of safe. And, later after he was called out, on an appeal call, for leaving third base and scoring, instant replay would have shown and reversed umpire Tim McClelland blown call. And, a short time later in the same inning, instant replay would have easily shown that two Yankee runners trying to occupy third base at the same time were both out instead of McClelland’s brain dead call of just one was out. Seeing two Yankees off the base and being tagged out by the catcher is a no-brainer.

In the World Series, the need for instant replay became even more apparent in Game 3 as Ryan Howard gloved a low line drive on the hop. But, the first base umpire called an immediate out thinking he had caught it on the fly. The mistake was understandable since he was positioned behind Howard and couldn’t see Howard short hop it. It started a double play since the Yankee runner was off to second at the crack of the bat. He reached second safely, but because the umpire made the wrong call on the line drive, the Phillies tagged the runner completing a double play. Instant replay would have corrected the call.

Instant replay is being used on a limited basis in baseball. It’s used for home run and foul or fair, what they call boundary calls. In game 3 instant replay showed its value by changing an umpiring call of a double by Alex Rodriguez to a home run thus allowing the Yankees to cut an early 3-0 Phillies’ lead to 3-2. It didn’t take the umpires long to review it and make the right call. If you follow Selig’s logic, instant replay would slow down the game and be too intrusive. I don’t care how long it takes, especially in the playoffs. I want the right call and I think most fans don’t care if it takes a couple of minutes to get it. The NFL found out instant replay could be used in an efficient way to make the game better and the officiating more credible. And like the NFL, Major League Baseball during the playoffs should have an umpire in a replay booth reviewing disputed calls. Since baseball is a slower game and there are very few disputed calls during a game, I’m sure the review umpire could judge the need to investigate and make a decision on a disputed call in a timely fashion. Especially since the umpires now huddle to talk over questionable calls. Also, I’d like to see a system that allows managers a limited number of challenges of disputed plays.

What I don’t want to see is instant replay used for every play, especially the calling of balls and strikes. Like all humans, umpires have “off” games. The calling of balls and strikes has been and always will be an inexact science. Each umpire has his “strike zone” and hopefully it will be somewhere close to what the rulebook says is the strike zone. The calling of balls and strikes in Game 4 was terrible. Neither team was happy with the calls and they let umpire Mike Everitt know it. The griping had credibility with two of the loudest complainers being the Yankee and Philly catchers. To make things worse, Fox uses an “unofficial” strike box to show whether pitches were balls or strikes. It’s not meant to embarrass the umpire, but when time and time again you saw Everitt made the wrong call, and a number of badly wrong ball/strike calls, it sends the impression the umpires are incompetent and calls into doubt the credibility of the game’s overall officiating. Again, I don’t want to see instant replay used in ball and strike calls. Let that be only the “human element” of the game.

So come on Bud, get smart. You’ve made other decisions for what you call “the good of the game.” The use of proven technology should be a no-brainer. As I watch the playoffs, I want to be yelling at my TV because of a great play, not because the umpires blew another call.

I’m Ron Barr.