by Ryan Robinson

Created on: October 10, 2009

Blown Calls - The Need for more Instant Replays in Baseball

English poet Alexander Pope once wrote: "To err is human, to forgive is divine". After last night's game in New York it's safe to assume that the Minnesota Twins aren't feeling very divine today. The Twins are now in an 0-2 series hole, thanks in part to a terrible call by the left-field umpire. A ball off the bat of probable A.L. MVP Joe Mauer clearly landed about 6 inches fair to lead off the 11th inning - too bad umpire Phil Cuzzi inexplicably called the ball foul. Mauer should have been awarded a ground-rule double. Ouch. The Yankees won the game in the bottom of the 11th on a Mark Teixeira homerun, but Twins fans were left to wonder what could have been.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is often trumpeted for its nostalgic celebration of its past, but it is fine time for Commissioner Bud Selig to get back to the future. Of all the pro sports leagues, MLB was the last to adopt instant replay - and a very limited use of instant replay at that. Only homeruns can be reviewed to determine if the ball landed fair or cleared the fence. This is ludicrous. Watch a baseball game and you'll see far more close calls that involve things other than homeruns. Did the outfielder cleanly make that diving catch or did the ball bounce before landing in his glove? Did the batter touch first base before the first baseman caught the infielder's throw? Did the runner touch home plate before the catcher applied the tag? Being an umpire is one of the toughest jobs in pro sports. Umps have to be in perfect position on every play. They have to make judgment calls on plays where even studio analysts have to look at a few slow-motion replays to see what really happened. Let's give the umps some help.

The NFL provides other pro sports leagues with a shining example of how to succeed in business, but MLB should also pay attention to how the NFL has handled instant replay. NFL coaches can challenge almost any call that they think the referee has made a mistake on. Yes, coaches' challenges have slowed the pace of the game a little, but at the end of the day isn't it more important that the right call was made? The only human error that should cost a team a win is that of their players.

After the season there will surely be some retooling of MLB's instant-replay criteria. Ask the Minnesota Twins when they are golfing next week and they'll say that any retooling of instant replay came a season too late (although to be fair, the Twins didn't do themselves any favors when they loaded the bases with none out in the 11th inning last night and failed to score any runs).

Give MLB umpires the same instant-replay options used by their brethren in all of the other pro sports leagues. Bud Selig, take the divinity out of MLB - limit human error by expanding instant replay.

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