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How hard can it really be to work a challenge into a MLB game?
The Milwaukee Brewers benefited from a tag that never happened on a pick-off play at second base Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies that could have cost them a win.
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Kyle Kendrick was put on as a pinch-runner for the Phillies, who were trailing 4-3 at the time of the incident. He would have had a chance to score the game-tying run when the next pitch was hit off the wall in right-center.
Not only did Jean Segura not have the ball in his possession, he tagged the runner with an empty glove. Plays like this show why coaches should have the ability to challenge a play. There are enough cameras around a baseball field that we could at least give the umps a chance to get the call right if they mess it up.
It doesn’t have to be crazy. Heck, give them one per series. Anything to show they are trying to make the right call rather than stand behind their umpires even when they know they are wrong. There’s no reason they can’t try to get the call right.
Armando Galarraga might have actually gotten credit for the perfect game he threw if they could have looked at it again. Todd Helton wouldn’t have gotten away with being three feet off first base last year if Don Mattingly could have thrown in a red flag. The Boston Red Sox might have been able to break their curse in 1999 if Tim Tschida‘s original phantom-tag was seen from another angle.
I see no good reason why they couldn’t give coaches an opportunity to challenge a play they think was called incorrectly. There are too many high-definition cameras around a baseball stadium to allow these gaffes to slip through the cracks because of “tradition.”
David Fouty is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davefouty, “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.
