I'm sort of "meh" on it. I think it will help once in a while, but very infrequently. Only homers are subject to review, correct? Personally, I think it should be done just like football. Each manager gets a challenge or two, and can use them whenever they feel appropriate. The problem is, where do you draw the line? Do you ever allow balls and strikes to be reviewed? How often do games end on a called third strike that really shouldn't have been called? I think instant replay is good for sports. I just wonder if it will ever get a better roll out in baseball.
I think they should just allow instant replay on everything but balls and strikes. As Alio said, each manager gets two challenges like the NFL. I don't think it would make the game longer, because it would eliminate all the arguments and umpire meetings.
IMO it's like a testing phase. They'll start now, and probably (hopefully) expand on it depending on how it goes so in that regard I don't mind. But only if they expand on it like you guys say.
Hmm, I wonder if that could be extended to maybe an "officials box" review on a play in the ninth, including called third strikes to end a game, like the last two minutes in football, where the booth challenges. That would be a great way to do it I think. And yeah, it's not going to make a game longer. Baseball games are already long. Plus, they'd cut to commercial during replays, giving more time to sponsors. Everyone wins.
reviewing balls and strikes is ridiculous and will pretty much never happen unless they get rid of the umps altogether for some sort of a questec system.
Questec was god awful. That made me stop watchign FOX baseball I'm on the fence(zing) about this. It's good for the precision, I hate to see my team lose on a homer called a double, but I love the human factor involved. I hope it stays out of the infield, at least. Anyone remember the White Sox/Mariners series in the late '90s? Mariners won the series after their 2B lifted the foot of the Sox player off the bag during a slide. Good times.
This was supposed to be ready for the playoffs, and I thought in the playoffs they have left and right field umpires. If they still can't get it right, they should be fishing. But alas, they roll it out preemptively, I'm not convinced this is flawless yet.
how can anyone be in favor of the "human factor" aka umps blowing calls and costing teams games? i don't get it.
Because it's ridiculous. ESPECIALLY with a month left in the season. Are they going to go back to games earlier in the year and change calls? Beyond that, it's simply not necessary. Without doing research, I'd be willing to bet that the percentage of games decided by a home run being called in play in any given season is under 1%.
I'd venture to guess...maybe 4, 5 games TOPS are effected by this thru out the course of a season. Pointless. I doubt any big games are effected by this EVER.
Yeah it's probably under 1%. ESPN would have been rolling out highlights of games the umps f*cked up this year to show how replay would have gotten the call right. But I haven't seen shit. Seriously though, if they get replay, they should get bag sensors for bang-bang plays. Olympus has the technology to do this, they were talking about it at the Olympics, and while we're at it, let FOX's K-Zone take over for the umps....
It's the fact that they are admitting to there being a better way of observing calls and are only bringing it back for a highly unlikely scenario. They can allocate this resource in a lot better ways.
Because they AREN'T doing that. As many right as possible would be using it to determine foul/fair balls, balls/strikes, safe/out on the bases, etc. This is just a gimmicky thing to make people happy because a couple home runs got called as being in play and ESPN hyped that up. It will have next to zero effect on the overall season, unless a playoff game ends on a call that uses it, which is unlikely.
Who cares what the percentage is? If you can make a simple, glaringly obvious change to get closer to perfection, why wouldn't you? "Hey, this new type of rivet will guarantee that your airplanes won't fall apart in midair. And you won't even have to make significant changes to your manufacturing process." "That's ridiculous! Less than 1% of our commercial flights explode into fiery balls of screaming death! Fuck off and eat a dick sandwich!"
