Utilize instant replay review!

by Patrick Ross

Football, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, lacrosse, and college sports all have one key thing that professional baseball just prefers to ignore; instant replay. For some reason baseball is the only major sport yet to utilize instant replay review. It is not that they don’t make mistakes, because they do quite frequently, they just put the whole idea to the side.
Yesterday, May 21, the Yankees and Orioles played at Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez, coming off his recent quad injury, started the game and hit what should have been two homeruns, but turned out to be only one. His first homerun was an absolute shot to left field, deep into the stands. Then in another plate appearance in the bottom of the sixth, A-rod took a hold of another one towards right-center. He thought it was gone all the way, but noticed them playing it out so he ran to second incase. You could see him mouth the words “homerun, homerun,” on the television highlights. The umps got together and decided that it was only a double. It was not a huge deal because the Yankees had a large lead already, but when looking at the replay it was clearly a homerun. The ball traveled over the fence and hit a set of yellow stairs that were up higher than the fence, so as a result it bounced back into the field and the outfielder played it. It was not even close to being inside the park and everybody who covered the games highlights made that clear. Just a few games before, during the subway series between the Mets and Yanks, Carlos Delgado nailed a slicing ball to the left field foul pole. This time the umps called it a foul ball; once again the wrong call. The fan that caught the ball showed the camera man, along with everyone watching, the huge mark the ball left on the pole.
So why not just add instant replay? There is literally no possible way it could hurt. All it would do is help make more precise calls on homeruns, diving catches, and sliding plays at bases. So it doesn’t get used out of control they could do what the NFL does, and allow each coach two challenges per game. Even if they set limits to it, for example if it is only allowed on homeruns or plays at the plate or something; either way something has to be done before more important plays get blown. The homerun may not have been that important to the Yankees the other day, but if it’s during the game that decides whether or not they are making the playoffs, well I bet they would care then. Umps please, please go for this and say something to the league or you guys will get blamed for critical losses and plays. Instant replay is important to sports that use it, and exciting for fans to watch on and find out the call, so Bud (Selig) it’s time to face reality and make an addition to the league.