To Sum It All Up!!

My final thoughts are that video replay does need to be allowed in Major League Baseball.  They need to sit down with the MLB commission and discuss the route they need to take in order to make the challenge process as smooth as possible.  Ground rules should be made and all coaches, umpires and players should be informed about what plays are available for review and what plays aren't. The criteria of which plays should still remain the same but allow such blown calls to be reviewed if they are that obvious to the human eye.  I do understand that baseball is Americas pastime and we need to keep it how it was intended but in my opinion we would be keeping it the same.  Everything gets better as it gets older, so why can't baseball?  We have all this technology at our disposal so why not use it for what it was made for.  If they have considered it before, than enough people have said yes to the idea to allow it in today's games.

My final thought...

Allow it!
     Even if people are against it it needs to be done.  The positives for it outweigh the negatives by far.  Reward the great players by not leaving the game in the balance of a blown judgment call.

What Have Sports Come To?

As you watch sports movies that were based in the past you begin to realize that the games played were completely different, beside the fact that in baseball, players didn't wear helmets, and in football players had leather helmets.  Games were called from the perspective of officials not from video replay. 

A traditionalist would tell you that blown calls are simply a part of baseball, but isn’t there so much more to the game’s tradition then an umpire making a mistake? There is no reason why longtime fans should be upset with umpires being able to review and correct their mistakes. They just need to enjoy everything that makes baseball great and not approve of its most glaring flaw. Show me one fan that is able to put up with an umpire’s mistakes and I will show you one that is not passionate enough about a great game to be considered more than a casual observer. How is it acceptable for blown calls to be continually allowed after TV’s around the country and scoreboards at games can instantly show an umpire’s mistake? Well let me tell you, it’s not.

I think that quote explains pretty well why people do not want technology to interfere with baseball and also why it should.  Blown calls are part of the history of baseball, but fans, coaches, and players do not want a game decided by a blown call, a no hitter to become a one hitter, or a perfect game to be blown at the last out of the game.  All sports need to have rules for use that everyone can understand. Explain it to the coaches because in baseball, I do not think they understand completely how it works.  Also, umpires need to understand how it works too!  It is also a little embarrassing that the Little League World Series allowed coaches to challenge a play and MLB teams can't.  I do think that MLB will come around eventually.  They just need to work out a few kinks along the way.

Now What?!?

Now that Baseball is officially over and the San Francisco Giants are world champions, I have run out of present examples of instances when video replay was needed in baseball and also I have pretty much summed up the pros and cons of either allowing replay or not.  I am going to turn my focus now to the National Football League and its use of replays. 
In the Kansas City Chiefs game yesterday against the Oakland Raiders, there were many controversial calls.  The Raiders head coach, Tom Cable, used his two challenges in the first quarter, winning one and losing one.  He was then out of challenges for the rest of the game.  There Raiders fumbled the ball that should have been reviewed to declare he was down, which ended up resulting in the Chiefs gaining possession of the ball.

Unlike baseball, NFL coaches are allowed two challenges per game (but if they win both challenges, they are awarded a third challenge).  This is a great advantage with the high-tech cameras that can slow down the play, zoom in, and show many different angles.  But with every positive, there are negatives.  You can only challenge certain aspects.  You aren't allowed to challenge personal foul calls, such as face-masks or a clipping call, that can be clearly visible in instant replay. 

I do understand why you can't challenge these because it is more a judgment call on all of these.  But just like in baseball it can reveal the truth hidden from the umpires or officials.

What Should Be Allowed For Review?

Baseball has recently allowed the use of video replay.  It allows umpires to review fair/foul ball home runs, ball clearing the wall (HR), ball in fair or foul territory, and fan interference.  But should there be more reviews in pro baseball games.  Umpires make horrible calls in almost every game.  Players who are clearly out are called safe and vice versa.  That in my opinion needs to change.  If someone is safe or out but is called the opposite, they need to be able to review that.  I don't think you can use replay on balls and strikes because the game would last all day and it would end up ruining the game.  Also, all umpires are different.  Their strike zones are completely different; some have a wide zone, some have a tight zone, and some have a low or high strike zone.  So balls and strikes need to remain the umpires call without any interference from video replay.  If a fan interferes with a players right to the ball and there is no review, it is an advantage to the batters or baserunners.  In the rules it states that a fan also has the right to the ball.  But they aren't the ones playing and they shouldn't even try to reach over the wall if the player has a chance at it.  Enough balls come out of play that you will sometime get another chance to get a ball and not end up on national television looking like an idiot.

I still like how  MLB is using video replays but they do need to use it on a few more things.  They also need to make the rules for use more clear and understandable.

Video Replay in Playoffs

During the series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees, there were back to back homeruns.  Both were controversial.  The Yankees hit a homerun that the outfielder could have robbed, but a few fans got in the way of the outfielder and ended up knocking his glove away from the ball.  The umpire ruled it a homerun and based on that they couldn't go back and review it.  Although I do not understand that, and I believe that it should have been reviewed.  If the game would have come down to a one run win by the Yankees, I would have been upset by this one instance.  But it didn't end up mattering.  But the next at bat for the Yankees, another home run was hit.  The umpire ruled it a homerun again.  But when they replayed it on tv you could clearly tell that it went foul.  They ended up reviewing this and ruled it a foul ball.  What I don't understand is how they can pick and choose which plays can be reviewed and which can't.  Clearly both should have been reviewed.  I am not sure if the first one would have been overturned, but the fact that they ignored it was wrong, in my opinion.  If you are going to review one, review any plays that are even close.  Just to make the right call.  If the evidence withstands the review then that's fine with me, but if it needs to be overturned then review it.

Should it be allowed?

There is a large controversy whether or not video replay should be allowed in Major League Baseball.  One perspective, is that it would ruin the authenticity of the game.  On the other hand, humans make mistakes.  If you leave it to an umpire to make a call, they will eventually blow a call that a simple replay can overturn.  Take for example, Football coaches are allowed to challenge plays which the referee may have missed.  Many times there have been calls overturned because of human error. A perfect example from baseball is Gallaraga's "almost" perfect game. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Gallaraga made the final pitch which was grounded to the first baseman who flipped it to Gallaraga for the the potentially final out.  No one had reached baseball the entire game, no walks, no hits, no errors.  The perfect game was hanging on this last play.  The ball hit the Gallaraga's glove before the runner hit the bag.  Clearly he was out, but the umpire called the runner safe.  Just like that a perfect game is gone and a humans error cost an athlete his glory.  If replay was allowed in baseball, this clearly would have been changed and Gallaraga would have been rewarded a perfect game, which only a handful of pitchers have ever done in the history of baseball.