By: Dan Hauser
“An essential part of the baseball drama is the human
element. An umpire is part of that. I perceive the play, apply the rules and
make the decision, all in real time. Under these circumstances, questionable
calls sometimes happen… My role is to decide what is right.”- Tim Welke
This
is an excerpt from a Sports Illustrated article in which umpire Tim Welke talks
about the human element being a great part of the game of baseball. Well for
lack of a better term Mr. Welke proved last night that the human element
argument is complete bull. He also showed once again why all the other major
sports leagues in this country have taken the “human element” out of the hands
of the officials and turned it over to technology.
For
those of you who did not see what I am referring to I will set it up for you.
It is the top of the 6th inning in a game between the Los AngelesDodgers and the Colorado Rockies. There are 2 outs and Jerry Hariston is at the
plate. He hits a ground ball to the Rockies third baseman who then throws it to
Todd Helton at first. No big deal there. Bang bang play to get the third out of
the inning. The only problem was that Helton was about three feet of the bag
and Welke still called him out. Here is the play in real time.
Instead
of the Dodgers having runners on first and second and 2 outs with a chance to
score its end of the inning. The Dodgers went on to lose the game 8 to 5. Now
I’m not saying that the blown call cost them the game but it sure didn’t help
their case either.
This
is just another example of why Major League Baseball is getting passed by other
major sports leagues in this country. Yes the human element might have been
great 50 years ago but that is because there were no other options. In this day
in age where technology is all over the place and you can watch games on your
cell phone the human element just doesn’t fly. How is it that I can be sitting
on my couch at home and clearly see that not only is he not out but Helton’s
foot is a good three feet off the bag but the supposed “paid professional”
standing right there can’t? And how much longer can Bud Selig continue to turn
a bind eye to these types of things? The “human element” already cost pitcher
Armando Galarraga a perfect game last year. What’s next? Will MLB finally wake
up when it costs a team a World Series trophy?
BudSelig needs to wake up and get with the times. He has added replay to home run
calls but he needs to pull the trigger and add full instant replay. There are
those that will argue that it will slow down the pace of the game and that most
baseball games are already long enough as it is. News flash everyone said the
same thing when the NFL was talking about adding instant replay and it seems to
be working out quite well. I just don’t want to see poor calls cost anyone or
anytime anymore potentially historic milestones in the great game of baseball.
2 comments:
Was at a Mets/Red Sox game in Boston and as a Mets fan was greatful for the HR instant replay. Omir Santos hit a game winning 2r HR over the Green Monster off of Papelbon, that was reviewed and ruled a HR.
As for plays like that, someone needs to be in a booth telling them they messsed up. I don't agree that EVERY play should be reviewed but on plays at the plate (Bryce Harper) and EASY fix calls like last night, there needs to be a light on the scoreboard, lit up by the guy in a booth, that will let the umps on the field know if the call stands or not. it will help with speed as the umps do not need to leave the field and will help call games correctly
After the Pirates lost an 18 inning game last season to a blown call I wrote an article about this same issue. These blown calls are becoming all to common anymore because we the viewers at home have the ability to rewind and see things again, or see them on youtube, the news, or espn. Other sports have instituted some type of replay to help curb the huge costly errors, its time baseball stepped into the modern times as well.
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