MLB's Major Tech Woes

Well let's just ruin another sport. Replays have taken the fun out of football, and now they're going to ruin baseball as well. These are games! Half of the fun is arguing calls afterwards.

Yes, I know that there's big money involved -- not to mention gambling. However, there are still arguements after a lot of replays. Also, replays don't apply in all situations, so coverage is uneven at best.

Finally, there's the flow of the game. No matter how speedy they make it, replays take time, and they screw up the play.
Everybody's all ripped up about a major deal, and now there's a minute of some ref with his head under a hood, or, in this case, jawing on the phone with 'replay central.'

Football, baseball and the like are people sports. They're action and emotion, not robotic precision. Why not just cover the players and the equipment with sensors, and let the computers figure it out!.

I'm no purist. Technology is a wonderful thing in many circumstances. But instant replay in sports is certainly not one of them.

It is the human element that brings a level of uncertainty and unpredictability to sports, adding to the excitement, passion, and entertainment that make the games so special. Limiting or abating that uncertainty may produce a more "fair" game from a technical standpoint, but the result will eventually be a more watered-down and sanitized version of the game.

As I said, technology is wonderful. Heck, we could replace all of the umpires, coaches, and players with robots that NEVER make mistakes or blow calls. But in the end it wouldn't be the same. It IS the human element that makes sports special. We can learn from the passion, the pain, the determination, and the mistakes.

Any real sports fan should be opposed to any measures that abrogate the human element.

Agreed. Baseball is special and it shouldn't change like this.

I would really like to see instant replays on the big screen in ballparks, though. No call changes - just use them to embarass some of the "lesser lights" of umpiring like good ol' Number 10, arguably one of the worst. Look him up if you have to. Most of us don't have to. He's so terrible he can almost be fun to watch - as long as he doesn't call your own team's game.

Living on the West Coast does have it's advantages, though, as I record most games and I can blast through the inevitable delays caused by referrals to Bud's "War Room".

The whole idea is just dumb, though. Leave my game alone.

Agreed. Baseball is special and it shouldn't change like this.

I would really like to see instant replays on the big screen in ballparks, though. No call changes - just use them to embarass some of the "lesser lights" of umpiring like good ol' Number 10, arguably one of the worst. Look him up if you have to. Most of us don't have to. He's so terrible he can almost be fun to watch - as long as he doesn't call your own team's game.

Living on the West Coast does have it's advantages, though, as I record most games and I can blast through the inevitable delays caused by referrals to Bud's "War Room".

The whole idea is just dumb, though. Leave my game alone.

I believe that baseball needs instant replay and I completely agree that Major League Baseball's plan for instant replay is going to fail miserably, but I think the plan outlined in this article is flat out idiotic. The only thing that made sense was the idea of using the Hawk-Eye system. Of course, tennis is much different than baseball and implementing it to work properly in baseball stadiums (while great in theory) may be impossible at this time.

MLB's idea of a central replay "war room" is dumb, but leaving the call in the hands of the very umpire(s) who messed up is even worse. Some umpires in the big leagues would rather say they were right the first time than get the call right.

The challenge system serves no practical purpose in either college or professional football. In college every play is reviewed upstairs anyway, so why do they need challenges? In the NFL you need to challenge in order to have any chance of getting the play overturned, but get penalized a timeout for challenging.

Penalizing a team for challenging makes no sense because they have no way of knowing what the outcome will be. This definitely includes the idea of adding strikes to the next batter for the team that lost the challenge. Whatever plan eventually gets implemented has to be approved by the owners, GMs, and the player's association. The players will NEVER approve a system that adds a strike to the count. It reduces their chances of getting a hit. Fewer hits means worse statistics. Worse statistics mean lower salaries.

There needs to be a replay official in the booth (at the ballpark) that reviews every play and calls down with the decision (instead of a description). No challenges necessary. The only calls that can be reversed are ones that have something objective in question. No ball/strike judgments since they're subjective.

Does the guy who wrote this article have any reasonably significant knowledge of the sport, or did he just decide to arbitrarily give his opinion on what may very well be a game-changing issue? Take it from someone who used to play baseball himself and whose father played, coached, and scouted for MLB teams; if done correctly, instant replay can change the sport for the better. But using plans such as those hastily outlined by MLB and in this article, the sport and its public image could enter into a downward spiral very quickly.

What is with all you people citing the "human element" against instant replay? Don't the 18 players on the field (or 20 in the AL) bring enough human element into the game for you?

I thought I was reading The Onion as I read this article. The author has never really enjoyed a baseball game before.

you guys are retared o yea lets not implement the instant reply and then we can have anthoer steve bartmen incident and i want to know how many of you guys actully wath football the instant reply system there has worked beautifully it has overturned many bad calls so that a error can be made right refs cant see everything and if we have the tech to take human error out of ref judements its a good thing