The Rich is happy. He’s looks out upon the diamond and sees
tranquility and civility. Why, you
ask? Because there is now relief
available for bad calls. Baseball is
committed to ‘getting it right’. Even
Angel Hernandez and Joe West seem to be less confrontational.
Count me among those who were skeptical
about adding instant replay to baseball.
After all, wouldn’t we be losing the human element? It turns out we’ve lost only the negative
human element and inserted civility into the game.
Now it is true that we won’t have Bobby
Cox and Earl Weaver style tirades. Poor
Bobby Cox will forever be the leader in ejections. BTW, speaking of Cox, he’s a man of excellent
character. Years ago Dick Howser gave
Cox his first break in coaching. Later
when Bobby was GM and then Manager of the Braves, he would always take a call
from Dick’s brother in Atlanta and provide him with tickets upon request. Dick’s brother never abused the privilege and
it’s nice to see loyalty in the business.
Wait, what was I writing about? Oh, yeah.
Instant replay. Has it slowed the
game down? No. Has it sped the game up? Not yet.
Has it improved the level of discourse between players/managers and the
umpires. Absolutely. And indeed, MLB is getting the calls right –
just like the NFL.
To me there is a greater issue at
work: Think of the heartbreak that will
be avoided in the future. There will be
no more calls like Jim Joyce’s ‘safe’ call which took away a perfect game. There will be no more World Series calls that
affect the outcome of a game and a series like Don Denkinger’s ‘safe’ call in
the 1985 World Series. Not only did the
calls hurt the teams and their fans, they are errors in judgment carried by some
of the finest umpires in the game’s history.
Now umpires know that their calls on not life and death. They seem far more relaxed and professional.
