Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Great Debate: Replays in Baseball

After recently watching a Phillies-Cubs matchup this past weekend, where a foul ball was mistakenly called a home run, wouldn't instant replay be beneficial to the National Pastime?

The Topic: Instant Replay in Baseball

Point: It would help avoid controversy calls by umpires and let then review any game-changing calls and judgements.

Counterpoint: It would slow down the game, and baseball already takes long enough as if.

Point: Replay would not feel right in baseball because of it's storied history and represenative of the America's National Pastime

Counterpoint: If the technology is available...why not use it? It would be like solving a math problem without a calculator or writing a hand letter to someone, when an e-mail will do the trick.

Conclusion: I would be in favor of putting replay in baseball but with certain restrictions. I would not make it available to all situations and/or scenarios. Similar to the NBA, in that you can only review a basket at the end of quarters, I would only restrict replay to home run calls. Calls that can not be seperated from foul or fair territory. There may be need for this replay once or twice a series and would hardly slow down a game.

...til next time

-E

No comments: