Does Instant Replay Belong In Baseball?

Really simple question. And yes, I realize that there will be some who will go back and shout Jeffrey Maier at me, but I think this is a pretty straightforward argument.

Both football and hockey use some sort of instant replay analysis (I'm not sure about the NBA because I don't watch it). But let's be frank - last night, there was a horrible call in the Yankees game that basically cost them a win. Now, again, some will say that I'd be against it if the Yankees would have won, but I think that you have to champion fair play before any personal feelings.

How would this system work? I'm open to ideas. I'd think that unlike the risk/reward system of the NFL with challenges, perhaps there is a better way to implement this - one challenge per side, so that it isn't abused. In extra innings, perhaps it is mandatory to review every play. I don't know. This is clearly the difficulty with baseball, because an already long game could be made even longer with frequent review from Bud Selig's office.

So I'd like to hear others opinions on what they think about this. On one hand, I can see both sides of the argument, so I haven't decided, but I'm interested to hear in what others think about this topic.

No. I agree with pizzaboy, it would slow an already sometimes boring game down to a crawl.

I say yes, but only on a limited basis. Each team gets one challenge per game and it can't be used to challenge balls and strikes. There has to be some sort of penalty for an incorrect challenge. Many homeruns that were called fouls (or vice versa) could have been easily overturned by a quick look at video.

You have the technology - why not use it?

BTW - I believe the NBA only uses replay if a referee wants to determine if a made quarter-ending or game-ending shot was released before the clock expired. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think this use of replay is in the referee's discretion.

No. the greatest thing about baseball is that the game is exactly the same for over a century and umpires are a part of that. this is the most subjective game of them all and it relies on the integrity of the umpires. maybe I am naive, but I like seeing this way. it's like I almost believe the posibilty of that baseball quote that says "Ideally, the umpire should combine the integrity of a Supreme Court judge, the physical agility of an acrobat, the endurance of Job and the imperturbability of Buddha."

Tony, except for the steroids, different technology used to make gloves, bats, bases, oh and black, Latin, and Oriental players filling the gaps. OH and Designated Hitter! Silly me!

I am cool with instant replay, but as the NFL painfully learned in the early 1990s, you got to have a control system with it.

Each manager is given one challenge per game, with 9th inning in itself be like Two Minute warning in NFL: Officials can watch replay if there is general confusion and/or dispute.

Trial & Error is applied to make anything better. Hell, the NFL has taken years to tinker with Instant Replay to make it more practical and fair. There are still faults to be worked out, but I think people are comfortable and are good with it(save for fans who's teams get screwed in a call reversed, but bah!)

Thats a pretty big hand lol

Baseball already has a way to strighten out one wrong call, the ridiculously long 162 game season. 8 teams make the playoffs and never has a single missed homerun kept one of the 8 best teams out of the postseason.

Basketball uses replay to look at time issues and if a basket counts at the end of quarter

I am against instant replay in baseball for some of the reasons stated above. I had once considered it a plausible option for verifying homeruns, but those disputes are too few to justify its existence. Anyhow the screens on foul poles virtually eliminate the fair/foul controversies.

Part of the beauty of the game is the human element. Bad calls have happened and will continue to happen. They balance out over time, and the good teams don't dwell on them, but get ready for the next game tomorrow. Baseball is also the only sport that tolerates coaches/managers entering the field of play to argue. Instant replay would perhaps eliminate this time honored tradition of juvenile behavior.

My advice, JJ, is not to worry too much about the bad call, or blame the loss on it. Your team has a payroll of a quarter billion dollars and is built to survive bad calls. Anyway, the dinger Rivera served up didn't help either.

Probably, the most famous blown call is Don Denkinger's ninth inning gaffe at first base in Game 6 that seemingly cost the Cardinals the World Series. But don't forget, they still had Game 7 and got crushed by 21 year old Bret Saberhagen the following day.

I say leave the game the way that it is. Comparing instant reply in baseball to instant replay in hockey is like comparing apples to oranges. Hockey is a faced paced game where a referee has to skate with the team end to end. This can cause a referee to be out of position to see if the puck crossed the line. The speed and quickness of shooting a puck is lighting fast and a puck can go in and out of the net within a split second almost making it impossible for the human eye to pick it up, especially if a referee or linesman is not positioned correctly.

In baseball you have 4 umpires who basically stay set in their positions, only moving a minimal amount at times during a play. The speed of baseball is no where near the speed of hockey and therefore it is easier for an umpire, who is set in his position, to pick up the ball with the human eye than it is for a referee to pick up a constatnly moving puck while moving up and down himself while following the continual faced paced play of the game.

Using the replay in hockey to further the implementation of the replay in baseball is a poor argument. You just cannot compare the two.

In my opinion there is no need for using instant replay to review a call made in a baseball game. The human element is part of what makes this game so wonderful.