Examiner columnist Gary Lambrecht says instant replay is a bad idea because umpiring mistakes are part of the game’s lore, including when young Yankee fan Jeff Maier deflected Derek Jeter’s game-tying home run over the fence as the Orioles’ Tony Tarasco tried to catch it in Game 1 in the ALCS in 1996. — AP

Gary Lambrecht, The Examiner
2008-06-03 07:00:00.0
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With all of the things Major League Baseball has done wrong in recent years like turning a blind eye to the Steroid Age, allowing a labor dispute to cancel the 1994 World Series and starting postseason games so late that most of America is snoring before the seventh-inning stretch, the sport has dug in correctly on one issue.

Alas, that stance appears headed for change, and not for the better. Sometime in the near future, baseball will begin to use instant replay.

Advocates of replay, starting with the general managers who voted in November, 25-5, to resort to it to resolve disputed boundary calls on home runs and fan interference, insist replay should be imposed only under those strict limitations.

That sounds noble, but is it realistic?

Baseball has enough problems. Opening the door to limited instant replay will create larger ones down the road. Games that already drag on too long will be extended further. And over time, replay gradually will be used to reverse controversial calls on the field of play — for example, out calls on the basepaths during the postseason.

Don’t believe me? You probably never dreamed anyone would pull the plug on the World Series, either.

My opposition to instant replay in baseball, and all sports for that matter, is rooted as much in philosophy as it is in the knowledge that man messes things up even with state-of-the-art technology at his disposal.

Don’t believe me? Watch an NFL game.

Sports have always been about human achievement and human error. We watch the best receivers on the planet drop passes all the time. We see premier basketball players brick free throws, layups and wide-open jumpers with astonishing regularity. Major leaguers still let grounders roll through their legs once in a while.

But somehow, the best officials performing at the highest level should not be allowed to make an occasional mistake?

Like pro football, basketball and hockey referees, baseball umpires make the correct call with incredible consistency.

Yes, the men in blue do screw it up at times, as a spate of recent, controversial homer and no-homer calls have reminded us. But I just don’t see how the fabric and integrity of baseball is the worse for it. On the contrary, umpiring mistakes are part of the game’s folklore.

Look, I’ll never forget watching in horror when the New York Mets had a game-changing rally ignited by the infamous “shoe polish” incident in Game 5 against the Orioles in the 1969 World Series. With the Mets leading the series, 3-1, but trailing in the sixth, 3-0, Cleon Jones was awarded first base on a hit-by-pitch after manager Gil Hodges showed an umpire a polish mark on the ball.

The ensuing, 5-3 win ended the Series. But I know now what I knew then. The Mets won, not because of a bad call, but because pitchers such as Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman silenced Baltimore, and the Mets made every spectacular play imaginable in the field.

Fast-forward to Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, when first base umpire Don Denkinger blew an out call in the top of the ninth that gave Kansas City a chance to avoid elimination by erasing a one-run deficit. Denkinger didn’t fold that inning and throughout Game 7 by losing his composure.

The St. Louis Cardinals did.

And Yankees fan Jeffrey Maier did not beat the Orioles in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS by illegally reaching over outfielder Tony Tarasco from the stands to catch a “home run” ball and spark a New York victory. The Yanks whipped the Birds in five games because they were a better team in every way.

If baseball wants to tighten up on its boundary calls, assign two more umps in the outfield, as it does in the postseason, to get a better look at the ball.

Do whatever it takes to get the best out of the top umps you can train. Trust your elite to fail with amazing rarity, as major league umps have done for a long time in a sport that tolerates a higher rate of failure from its players than any other sport, by far.

Just don’t add another stain to the game by introducing instant replay.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com