[pete_b]

Did anyone see that Mets game and the play at the plate where the catcher dropped the ball but the ump was out of position and called him out? He was clearly safe but the ump missed the call and called him out. Should there be an instant replay in baseball?

[Wizard of Os]

Instant reply in baseball?

No.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Can't we just keep one thing in the 21st century human? Please?

O, by the way, i'm against instant replay in baseball. Maybe i'll have more salient comments later, but the emotional reaction always comes first.

Cheers! (And here's to umpires; may they cause misery, heartbreak and anguish forever -- we love to hate them, remember.)

[Lefty Noob]

I've got to echo Os here, except with fewer no's. No, no, no. I hate instant replay. Let the calls be made on the field and let a team live or die with them. Give fans something to bellyache about the day after their team loses. And besides, aren't baseball games long enough already? I'd rather have a pitch clock than instant replay!

[MVB]

No instant replay! That takes the fun out of the sport! See, when your team loses, you can always blame the umpires for making bad calls! If there was instant replay, you would know (and have to admit) that it was your team's fault that they lost...

Plus, that play at the plate is still disputed. I've watched it several times and Lo Duca may have switched hands with the ball (from his glove to his bare hand), still made the out, and never dropped the ball.

[legend]

No to instant replay. Phantom tags, being in the vicinity of second on a double play, disputed fair or foul balls, leaving the base a half second too soon, these are all part of what makes baseball the greatest game in the world.

[pete_b]

Okay so just let me play devil's advocate here since you guys feel so strongly about this issue. Why is it okay to have instant replay in football and hockey but not in baseball? I am searching my mind for a reason. I guess the only one that I can find is that Baseball is above all other sports. At least they act like they are.

[Lefty Noob]

Why is it okay in the NFL? Because they continue to fails to use full-time officials. What they NEED to do is dump replay and hire referees whose only job is to be referees. But until that happens, replay is a nice crutch to have.

[ThePundit]

Wizard, what is your opinion on this? You're being too wishy-washy. Personaly. I'm against replay in all sports. Sports are played by imperfect players and can sure as heck be officiated by imperfect refs and umps.

[MVB]

I'm with you... no instant replay in any sport... Human errors make a sport.... a sport.

[legend]

Replay in the NFL is a joke, just look at the Steelers-Colts debacles. Hockey replays are pretty cut and dried, I have no problem with them.

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by Lefty Noob

Why is it okay in the NFL? Because they continue to fails to use full-time officials. What they NEED to do is dump replay and hire referees whose only job is to be referees. But until that happens, replay is a nice crutch to have.

Since when is any crutch nice?

Here's why instant replay is okay in football: Because football is a TV sport. The game really only began to dominate the American sports fan's imagination when regularly shown on the television, and the introduction of Monday Night Football and Super Bowl hype made the game take off.

The NFL is currently the only league in which television has changed the actual rules of the game. Does anyone remember the time before the two-minute warning? It was inserted for the possibility of another commercial break. Does anybody remember that, in the past, if a kickoff never bounced in bounds, the kicking team was assessed a five-yard penalty and told to do it again? This was changed for televisual considerations. And, while the two-point conversion cannot be said to be an invention of television interests, it certainly helps the hype.

Football is essentially the only game wherein watching the game on the tube actually improves the experience, at least in terms of understanding the game's nuances, a situation diametrically opposed to baseball, hockey and soccer, where you can see the entire field should you attend the game live. In football, the action is concentrated and kept far from attendees. Plus, with so much contact in so little space, cameras are often needed to sort things out.

If there's a play at the plate in baseball, that's typically two guys and you can usually see the situation develop for at least ninety feet of basepath -- Plenty of time to get into position. In a goal line stand in football, you've got, what, nineteen or twenty guys colliding en masse in a space of a foot or so. Who can see that? Who has time to get in perfect position there? Only the camera.

If they're going to use the instant replay in baseball, they should just get rid of the umpires altogether. This would eliminate ejection of players and coaches and save the league a little money. Plus, the boys in blue wouldn't have to risk their lives squatting with minimal protection about 61 feet behind a 90mph fastball. Just call everything from the booth! And we can raise up a new cry: "Kill the camera!"