I’ve been on record for a long time as a staunch opponent of instant replay in baseball. Call me old fashioned, but I like the “human factor” that exists when real people need to make real judgment calls in a split second (full disclosure: I’ve been umpiring baseball at various levels for enough time to make me significantly jaded). All that being said, it looks like instant replay is here to stay. Commissioner Selig has made it explicitly clear that the only reviewable calls are calls on the periphery of the field of play – the so called “boundary calls”. I’m OK with that. I can live with umpires taking some time to check a replay of a disputed homerun. The problem I see is that instant replay is a band-aid on the larger problem – MLB stadium design.
At this point everyone has seen A-Rod’s home run on September 3rd that was correctly ruled a home run by third base umpire Brian Runge. The crew was convinced the review the play and the call was upheld by crew chief Charlie Reliford. The replay process went smoothly and everyone (with the possible exception of Joe Maddon – who still claims he doesn’t know if the ball was fair or foul) was happy. Looking at Tropicana Field down the left field line, there is the standard, run-of-the-mill foul/fair pole right where it belongs. Some 30 feet behind that sits a foul pole extension – a bastard child of stadium architecture. What the hell? This is a baseball field; there should be two fair/foul poles on the field, not two with two separate extensions. If the poles aren’t tall enough to begin with, then they should have changed the design! Problems like these aren’t limited to the Trop, although it may take the cake as the worst designed ballpark in The Show. What the hell is with the shelf on top of the Green Monster Seats? That doesn’t belong there. If a ball goes over the wall, it’s a homerun, let’s design these ballparks so there’s little chance that the ball can’t come back into play easily. Umpiring crews weren’t missing homerun calls with any regularity 20 years ago. Maybe instant replay isn’t the answer, maybe it’s a symptom when non-baseball people design our hallowed grounds for fan experience and not the game itself.
At this point everyone has seen A-Rod’s home run on September 3rd that was correctly ruled a home run by third base umpire Brian Runge. The crew was convinced the review the play and the call was upheld by crew chief Charlie Reliford. The replay process went smoothly and everyone (with the possible exception of Joe Maddon – who still claims he doesn’t know if the ball was fair or foul) was happy. Looking at Tropicana Field down the left field line, there is the standard, run-of-the-mill foul/fair pole right where it belongs. Some 30 feet behind that sits a foul pole extension – a bastard child of stadium architecture. What the hell? This is a baseball field; there should be two fair/foul poles on the field, not two with two separate extensions. If the poles aren’t tall enough to begin with, then they should have changed the design! Problems like these aren’t limited to the Trop, although it may take the cake as the worst designed ballpark in The Show. What the hell is with the shelf on top of the Green Monster Seats? That doesn’t belong there. If a ball goes over the wall, it’s a homerun, let’s design these ballparks so there’s little chance that the ball can’t come back into play easily. Umpiring crews weren’t missing homerun calls with any regularity 20 years ago. Maybe instant replay isn’t the answer, maybe it’s a symptom when non-baseball people design our hallowed grounds for fan experience and not the game itself.
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