Thursday, July 23, 2009

Expand MLB Instant Replay? No way

Once again we have the tiresome instant replay argument being brought up again in the MLB. We had ONE bad call recently and it shouldn't even have happened in the first place, and now we have a bunch of people screaming for it again...

What a load of crap.

The Twins got called out on a game-ending play at the plate. The A's were ahead 14-13 and Michael Cuddyer tried to score the tying run on a passed ball. Cuddyer was easily safe but called out to end the game.

But the Twins shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. They had a 12-2 lead in the 3rd inning; last time I checked in baseball rarely any lead is comfortable early in the game. It's a sport where you need to keep putting pressure on the opposing team.

The Twins didn't do their job after the 3rd inning. The pitchers struggled and hitters went quiet. The A's slowly crept their way back into it and then blew up with a 7 run 7th to take the lead. The Twins only have themselves to blame. They gave up a big lead then tried to blame it on the ump on one call to end the game.

I know it was a bad call but the umps can't see them all. That's why you can't put yourselves in a possible position where an umps call can "decide" the game. The umps are payed to be accurate and make sure the game goes along smoothly. But they're not payed to get every call right.

Now to replay. The human element is what makes baseball such a great game. There's just something about it that I like. Baseball is a game of judgment calls and was made that way for a reason. I would not like to see instant replay expanded to calls on the field.

Once you expand to 'on the field' plays you run the risk of delaying the game and ruining the tradition of the game. If we do this then what's to stop them from expanding to balls and strikes? You rarely see bad calls like this, but remember it's part of the game. It was a rather unfortunate ending to a game where the Twins unfortunately had it coming.

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