Why Instant Replay in the MLB is NOT the Solution

Yesterday, I blogged about how the instant replay debate in Major League Baseball gained strength, and why instant replay would be beneficial for the MLB.  However, although instant replay is the popular choice of fans, and there appear to be advantages to instituting instant replay, in my opinion it would be extremely difficult and not fair to institute instant replay in a very large capacity.

Instant replay works so well in football because plays end.  There is a definitive start and a definitive end to the plays, and then there is time between the start of the next play.  In baseball, however, the ball is almost always in play, unless time is called by a manager, player, or umpire.  So even as an event occurs on the field, the play doesn’t end, like it does in football.  This difference is difficult to visualize without a concrete example.

In football, if a player fumbles the ball, and everyone jumps on top of the ball, the play is over.  Therefore, a referee can review the play to see if the runner’s knee was on the ground before the ball came out.  In this way, instant replay works extremely well in football.

In baseball, however, if a line drive is hit to the 3rd baseman, and he catches the ball close to the ground, the umpire on the field will call the batter out.  What if there was a runner on first?  This runner would attempt to return to first before the 3rd baseman could throw back to 1st.  Let’s say that the runner on 1st is thrown out at first.  What would happen next?  The offensive team would want the play to be reviewed, but this would open up more questions than there originally were.  Let’s say that it was decided after review that the ball was not caught but instead was shorthopped by the 3rd baseman.  What would happen?  We would have no way to know what the 3rd baseman would have done if the umpire had no called it a catch.  Would he have thrown to second in the effort to either turn two or get the lead runner? Would there be time for a double play? Or would he simply throw to 1st in the effort to get the safe out?  The point is that there is no way to know what would have occurred after this call, and therefore instant replay in this situation causes more questions than answers.  In this situations, instant replay would not be beneficial for baseball.

There are other situations in which instant replay would not work in Major League Baseball.  For example, if on a potential tag play with the bases loaded, it is called a shorthop on a shallow fly ball, the runner is forced to scamper home because it is a force play.  Let’s say that he is thrown out on this play.  If, after review, it is determined that the ball was caught, then the runner would not have needed to run home, for it would no longer be a force with the batter being called out.  Would the runner have still gone home if it was called a catch, or would he have stayed at third because of the shallowness of the pop fly?  There is no way to know, and that decision should not be made for the runner, as the runner had no ability to make such a decision.  Therefore, the institution of instant replay in this scenario would also not be beneficial for baseball.

One more example to drive the point home.  9th inning, tie game, runners are on 1st and 3rd, with one out.  The middle infield is playing halfway to allow for both a double play to be turned or to be able to throw home to get the lead runner.  A shot is hit up the middle, and the shortstop tosses to the 2nd baseman, but it is not a very good toss.  It appears to be close as to whether or not the 2nd baseman is pulled off the bag, but the umpire calls the runner out.  As a result, the 2nd baseman throws to 1st to complete the double play.  What if this play was reviewed and it showed clearly that the 2nd baseman was off 2nd when he caught the ball, too far off to even give the benefit of the doubt?  Well, if the runner was called safe at 2nd on the play, the 2nd baseman would have done one of two things.  He would have either tried to retouch 2nd before throwing to first, as it was a hard hit ball, or he would have thrown home to stop the potential game winning run.  The 2nd baseman did not do either of these things, however, because the runner was called out at 2nd originally.  Therefore, is it really fair or pragmatic to theorize or debate what WOULD HAVE HAPPENED if the correct call was made originally?  Absolutely not.  It isn’t fair to either team, because the players were simply reacting on the spot to the calls that were made on the field, and it is impossible to try to recreate these situations with a call on the field changed.

These are only a few of many examples of how instant replay would not work in baseball.  It has been shown in sports such as football, tennis, hockey, and basketball that instant replay can work in terms of catches, fumbles, and more in football, in or out in tennis, goals or no goals in hockey, and if the shot beat the buzzer in basketball.  However, instant replay works in these cases because these plays have a definitive end after the event being reviewed occurred.  In baseball, this is just not the case and as a result replay can ONLY be implemented in the very limited form that it is now.  Home runs and boundary calls are the extent to which replay should be implemented, because in these cases, there is a stoppage to the play to the point where no more actions can occur until the ball is put back into play.

********************************************************************

Final Example that I thought would be beneficial after I published the entry:

Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 outs in the inning.  The runner takes tries to steal 2nd and gets thrown out and the inning is over, but replay review shows he was safe.  In this case one cannot say whether or not the second baseman would have thrown home to stop the runner at 3rd from scoring if the call on the field was safe.  One also cannot say whether or not the runner woulda been out at home if the 2nd baseman would have thrown home.  Therefore, one cannot try to recreate situations on the field with any effectiveness.

The fact is, the situation i described above doesn’t END when the umpire makes the call, and thereby the player has some reaction to the call made on the field.  After the call is made on the field, the situation cannot be recreated and the players’ potential decisions based on a reviewed call cannot be guessed.  This is one more of the many examples of why instant replay in baseball should not be expanded past its current role.