Top of the 9th inning. Two outs. Armando Galarraga is on the verge of history, one out away from becoming the 21st pitcher in Major League Baseball history to throw a perfect game.
Ground ball to the right side of the infield. Miguel Cabrera scoops it up and tosses over to the hustling Galarraga to throw the runner out by at least half of a step and complete the perfect game. Safe.
In what will go down as the worst calls in history, Jim Joyce butchered a seemingly easy call that would have placed Galarraga in one of baseball’s most elite clubs.
Source: New York Daily News
Since then, Joyce has publicly apologized and admitted his error, and Major League Baseball has officially recognized Galarraga’s performance as a perfect game. However, this incident brought to the forefront the question of whether or not baseball should expand the use of instant replay.
Major League Baseball first introduced the usage of instant replay on August 28, 2008. In its early stages, instant replay was used for the sole purpose of home run calls. The three situations in which it could be used were to determine whether the ball was fair or foul, if the ball left the playing field, and if the home run was subject to fan interference.
Source: The Sports Quotient
Since then, instant replay has been expanded on multiple occasions to include non-home run boundary calls, fair/foul balls, force/tag play calls, catch plays in the outfield, base running, hit by pitch, collisions at home plate, tag-ups, placement of runners, and interference for the purposes of breaking up a double play.
Under today’s rules, managers from each team are allowed to challenge one call per game, and if the umpire crew overturns the call in question, the team is allowed to retain their manager challenge. On the contrary, if the call stands, the manager loses their challenge and cannot challenge a call for the rest of the game. The only other person that is allowed to invoke an instant replay is the crew chief, and this right is only reserved for certain circumstances.
Source: FiveThirtyEight
Since its inception, instant replay has been met with a lot of opposition. The most vocal people arguing against the use of replay are baseball’s purists. Those against replay claim that taking the human element out of the game ruins baseball in its purest form. The umpires are there for a reason, and while they may not get every call correct, they are right a majority of the time. Of the 1,531 instant replays in the 2016 MLB season, 787, or 51.4% of calls were overturned. A large portion of the reviews, 40%, were for tag plays, and 30% were for plays at first base.
Another major argument against instant replay is that it makes a slow game even slower. The average baseball game lasts roughly three hours, and the game cannot afford to add more breaks lasting several minutes each. This even slower pace of play will lose the interest of fans.
Two months into the 2016 season, the number of replays increased by 35 percent from the previous year, and the average length of review was 1 minute and 54 seconds. In order to increase the pace of play, Commissioner Rob Manfred intends to implement rules that would require managers to signal that they want a replay within 30 seconds, and replays would have a time limit of two minutes.
Moving forward, baseball needs to alter the instant replay system so as to not ruin the purity of the game and alienate its fan base.
Sources:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/rare_feats/index.jsp?feature=perfect_game
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v8616789/cledet-donald-breaks-up-perfect-game-in-the-ninth
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Instant_replay
http://m.mlb.com/official_rules/replay_review
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/replaychallenge_type=&year=2016&challenger=teamchallenging&team=
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/15356284/mlb-replays-drastically-far-2016-season
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2017/02/28/limit-replay-reviews-2-minutes-rob-manfred-meet-players/98527888/
As a self-proclaimed “purist” myself, I have issues with the instant replay system as well. America’s pastime should be something that transcends eras and the fads that dilute the other major American sports. Watching an NBA basketball game is cringe-worthy when the organ is replaced with contemporary rap song beats that sometimes play over the game. Although I do not believe baseball will ever come to that, the gimmicks that are seen at games nowadays ruin the feel the game. Instant replay in baseball is the first step in becoming more gimmicky. The game is fine without instant replay, although I would not be opposed to have instant replay in the postseason only.
I have not really ever been a big baseball fan, mostly because it is a long game and nobody in my family ever watched it (the Pirates had a rough stretch through the 90s and 2000s). So I do see the argument that having instant replays will lengthen the game. But it seems that being able to adhere to the rules is and important aspect and another aspect of the game could change to help the runtime. Almost every professional sport has some sort of instant replay because officials can not always see what is occurring. But with the sheer number of cameras present in stadiums today, most decisions can be made accurately, something that would benefit the players who play by the rules. And given that that (slim) majority of calls are overturned it seems like instant replay could be helpful in some situations.
I do understand that baseball is seen as America’s pastime and something that should remain pure. However, I do feel like instant replays serve an important purpose. Although winning isn’t everything, it is important to teams and players; and if there is any chance that the umpire’s call is incorrect, I see why managers would challenge that. I personally don’t like baseball because I think it’s too long and repetitive, but players deserve recognition for their accomplishments. While, 48.6% isn’t the majority of plays, it’s still almost half of plays being called incorrectly. Thinking about how many games could have ended differently, the instant replay system should stand.