MLB looking at instant replay

Wow. This surprises me.

Instant replay might be coming to Major League Baseball in an instant.

Moving faster than expected and coming after a rash of blown calls, baseball wants to put replay into effect by August for home run disputes in hopes of fine-tuning the system by the playoffs.

MLB and the umpires' union need to reach agreement before replay can be tried, and the sides have started talking. It was thought replay would get its first look in the Arizona Fall League and then the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

[...]

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president for baseball operations, is pushing for replay by Aug. 1; Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president of labor relations, suggested Aug. 15.

"It's all still premature," MLB spokesman Rich Levin said Friday. "A final decision has not been made."

As you know, I favor this idea, and I also never thought it might happen this quickly. Good on baseball for being so decisive.

"I don't think it's needed at all, to be honest," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said Friday. "How many times do you see players make errors? Baseball has talked about speeding up the game. It's all you hear. All of a sudden, they want instant replay? You're going to have slower games and more restless people in the stands."

Oh, please. First of all, if we're only talking about home run calls, then very few games will be affected. And second, given the amount of times that managers like Lou Piniella spend arguing these calls when they occur, it's not at all clear that checking a replay would slow things down any more. Admittedly, seeing Piniella blow a gasket is more entertaining; perhaps each stadium can keep a highlight reel of such antics to play on their scoreboards whenever a call is under review.

Anyway. I applaud the Lords of Baseball for giving this serious consideration. May they be as forward-thinking when the technology to accurately and consistently call balls and strikes arrives on the scene.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 15, 2008 to Baseball