As MLB’s General Managers fail to reach a consensus on the matter of instant replay, let’s consider for a minute whether or not such a practice is necessary or even preferable. Left to the power of human judgement, the umpiring crew in the recently concluded ALCS went to great lengths to get it right. Though there’s no shortage of days & nights when the strike zone seems to vary wildly, there’s been no suggestion that replay would be used to challenge or correct such calls. But after all the outcry about the average game soaring past the 2:40 mark, even a limited application of replay would slow things down.
i agree. plus the camera angles are so important and there’s little way to standardize them from stadium to stadium. and unlike football where the whistle stops everything, much can happen in baseball during a play that is predicated on something else (i.e. continuation) and ity just opens up a host of potential problems. maybe instead they should just introduce “do overs” for any play where the call cannot be agreed upon.
There has to be a way to determine if a ball was foul or fair(or if it went over the wall at all) without a long ‘instant replay timeout’.
there is such a method. It’s called letting the umpire decide and if neccessary, consult his colleagues.