The MLB is looking to add reviews of trapped balls and fair-or-foul calls to their instant replay arsenal for next year, and this is making me a little leery.
As of now, only questionable home run balls can be reviewed. But before you know it, Bud Selig and his band of umpires are going to be pushing for review of safe-or-out calls.
That can’t happen.
Umpires are as much a part of the game as sunflower seeds. Just like players, they mess up, and blown calls at second base and horrid strike zones come with the package. They are more intertwined with the outcome of the game at hand than the officials of any other sport.
If the MLB continues to diminish the role of umpires and the importance of their calls with the expansion of instant replay, then it is, as Giants outfielder Aubrey Huff lamented to ESPN.com, “messing with the history of the game.” Anyone who plays or knows baseball understands that umpire mistakes, just like strikeouts and errors, are key elements to a game that is insanely difficult and frustrating, yet utterly beautiful.
Bud, we’ve got to leave the replay rules and the game alone. After all, if you give a mouse a cookie …
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
