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Major League Baseball is leaping through hoops trying to get an instant replay system together before another person calls out its umpires who are doing their job by calling the game using human judgement rather than replay — something that has been used long before the age of televisions and computers.
This is not dissing instant replay at all. Baseball needs some sort of way to correct calls, but the problem with using instant replay is taking up too much time and boring the fans. That is the fear of using a system, but it seems like the league is going to get with the 21st century.
Bud Selig wants to use replay on almost every play but strikes and balls. He will also try to implement a manager’s challenge system similar to the NFL‘s system. Each manager is going to get three challenges per game. One from the first to the sixth inning and two for the seventh and beyond. This is an innovative system that was widely accepted by the owners and is expected to be formally adopted during the Owners Meetings in November.
The question that lies with the challenge system is if the managers actually want it. ESPN’s Jim Bowden shared Tony La Russa‘s opinion on the matter.
Major League Baseball is trying to pass a rule for the managers that they may or may not want. The rule seems to come on a whim since there was no report of further research done for the challenge rule. League officials need to see if managers want this or not.
It is not as if the challenge system is going to bring extreme changes to things that they could not get interest from the managers in how to use the system and rules for it. After all the managers, not the players or league officials, have control of the challenges.
Getting opinions from the managers seems extremely elementary, but it is something that baseball needs to gauge.
Ryan Gaydos is a MLB columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
