The Terrifying World of Instant Replay

When I was about twelve years old and playing in little league, I failed to steal a base.

Now, I wasn't very fast growing up. In fact, I'm not very fast right now. But I made it to second base. The throw was high, and (although the throw beat me) I slid well beneath the tag. Anyone within a two hundred yard radius could have easily seen that I was safe.

But the umpire didn't see it that way. He didn't know any better (I guess), and thought that it was a force out at second base. So I trotted back to the dugout and sat back down to be consoled by my teammates.

See, I didn't argue or throw a hissy fit because I knew that any other player at any other level would be subject to the same rules. If the umpire says it (regardless of the overall unfairness), it goes.

Now, however, brilliant commissioner Bud Selig wants to institute a new rule allowing managers to formally challenge an umpire's decision and force him to review it via instant replay and get the call "right."

I have some problems with this, and we'll start with the most basic.



First, I grew up being told that baseball was about more than baseball. It taught important lessons like sportsmanship, and how to handle a world which wasn't always fair. There are things more important than factual correctness, and one of those things is the good ol' fashioned truths of everyday life.

Baseball (and many other sports) serve as an allegory for life. They demonstrate fundamental truths about the world we live in, and that matters more than getting a call "right."

In addition, for years men have been playing the game of baseball without the opportunity to review and change the calls. Will baseball go back in time and change the outcomes of those games? I think not. So for the fairness of baseball players throughout the course of time, the finality of an umpire's decision ought to remain.

Let the umpire be the god of the baseball field; it is his rightful role in baseball. Taking it away from him adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the overarching truth that baseball can portray.