Friday, July 23, 2010
Unemployment benefits
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
argumentative paper
Nick Holmes
Gloria Shirey
Eng 132.60
29 June 2010
Replay In Baseball
The games are already too long. Having replay would take all of the humanness out of the game. These are just a couple of the complaints made by those who do not want instant replay expanded in baseball. It has been seen however that the game can only benefit from the use of expanded replay. In the last couple of years alone the outcomes of several games could have been made right if replay had been allowed and used. Adding a couple minutes of game time and having a little less human factor are small prices to pay for getting game changing calls correct.
Baseball right now already uses replay on questionable homerun calls. The umpires can go and look and see if the ball hit the wall in play and came back or hit out of play and came back, whether the ball was fair or foul, or whether there was fan interference or not. This use of replay has been in place since general managers voted 25-5 for it in November 2007(“Baseball”). It was however not used for the first time until September 3, 2008. There have been times before and after this date that would have benefitted from replay.
Don Denkinger and Jim Joyce are the two names that first come up in the talk of expanded replay in baseball. Denkinger’s blown call ruined a pennant run for a team and Joyce’s blown call ruined a perfect game. Denkinger’s call took place in the 1985 World Series Game 6 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. St. Louis was leading the best of 7 series 3-2. The Cardinals had taken a 1-0 lead in the 8th inning of Game 6 and were prepared to win the pennant in the 9th. Cardinals closer, Todd Worrell, came in and faced Jorge Orta as his first batter. Orta hit a slow roller to the first baseman and Worrell covered the bag. Denkinger, who was umping first, called Orta safe, giving Kansas City a base runner. The Royals went on to win the game 2-1 and eventually the pennant(Denkinger). However, television replays show that Orta was clearly out by a step. During the game Worrell and then Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog made multiple protests but Denkinger refused to change his call. Replay was not used in any way at this point in baseball history but if it had been this call could have been made right.
Jim Joyce is the cause of the second and most recent example of the need for replay. His blown call happened earlier this month. On June 2, 2010, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was pitching a perfect game against the Cleveland Indians. Galarraga made it through 26 batters without giving up a hit, walk, or error. Then the 27th, and what should have been final, batter of the game, Jason Donald, came to the plate. He hit a slow ground ball to the first baseman Miguel Cabrera who fielded it cleanly and tossed the ball to Galarraga who was covering the bag. Galarraga caught the ball as his foot touched the bag ahead of Donald. Galarraga turned to watch Joyce give the out sign, but stopped in awe as Joyce called Donald safe. No one could believe it. Not even Donald who put his hands on his head and had a look of amazement on his face. Television replays showed that Galarraga had touched the bag with the ball in his hand a step and a half before Donald reached the bag. Neither Joyce nor Commissioner Bud Selig would reverse the call(Joyce). In this situation, if baseball had instant replay the league could have gotten the call right and Galarraga would have the perfect game rather than a one-hitter. Those who do not want replay expanded however, will not allow one or two instances to sway their opinion. They have other reasons for not expanding. Game time is their biggest argument.
Nine innings has been the standard of baseball from the beginning. The time it takes to play these nine innings however has changed dramatically since the beginning of baseball. At the turn of the twentieth century, games were usually played in an hour and a half. In the 1920s, the games took just less than two hours. By 1960 however, game time grew to 2:38, and by 1997 the average American League(AL) game took 2:57. In 2004, the MLB concluded that its goal was an average game time of merely 2:45(Baseball). To this point the extended game time has been caused by a number of factors. These factors include extended television time in between innings, increased offense, more pitching changes, and a slower pace of play with pitchers taking more time between pitches and batters stepping out of the batter’s box more frequently. Those who say that replay should not be used in the game of baseball say that it will extend the game time of games that already last, on average, well over two hours. However if the league set up the replay operation correctly they would not add more than a minute or two on to the game times. Along with the game time there are other questions that come with the use of expanded replay.
One question if baseball instituted replay would be how far down replay should extend. Right now, the MLB is the only baseball league that uses replay. Many say that the minors and even college should also use it. If baseball did expand replay, it should be kept to just the majors like it is now. This is for the good of those learning the game and those paying to see the game. For replay to work, a stadium must have cameras set up in strategic locations so that they can catch everything that might be reviewed on tape. Most venues outside of those in the MLB most likely would not be able to afford the cost of that amount of equipment. And as you get further down, say, to little leagues, those places, with the possible exception of Williamsport, certainly would not be able to afford that kind of equipment.
Another detractor from bringing replay down to levels below the MLB is the learning factor. Kids play baseball all around the country for fun and because they like to do it. We do not need to be teaching them that when they step onto the field they can just argue every call and ask for a replay to be looked at. This is because while baseball is changing, it is first and foremost a game of humans and their judgment. Kids learning the game need to learn this first and then if/when they get higher up in the game they can learn all about replay. Replay should not extend down below the majors for this reason.
Other dissidents of replay say that once the league allows replay on more complicated calls than homeruns that there will be no way to draw the line and decide where replay should stop. They say that allowing replay will open the door to too many other options or problems associated with replay. Some of these problems include people crying for more expansion than what is done, who decides what gets replayed, who does the review of the replay, and who gets the final call. One sports writer agrees with baseball commissioner Bud Selig and says, “On this one I'm in agreement with what Selig has maintained: To expand the use of instant replay beyond the determining of fair or foul home runs or fan interference would be to invite potential chaos and create situations that would make a mockery of the game”(Bill Madden par. 3) But as with any problem, there are solutions.
There are solutions to the problem. The most obvious would be to use replay whenever any player, manager, or umpire saw fit. This is not logical though if you want to solve the game time problem. For the best solution to the problem, baseball should look to what football does. In football each coach has one red flag that they can throw for almost any non-penalty call. Once this flag is thrown, the referees must go and look at the replay. This is what baseball would be best to do if they did expand replay. Each manager would get one red flag and be able to throw it for any call on the base path that they disagreed with and wanted reviewed. Once the flag is thrown, a replay official in the booth would look at the replay and talk with the umpires on the field. The replay official would then decide whether the umpire made the right call or not and then decide whether the call needs to be changed or not. Once he makes his decision, he informs the umpires on the field and they either change the call or let it stand depending on what they are told from above.
A couple of restrictions would have to be set on this though. First, the manager could only throw the flag for calls on the base paths. Balls and strikes would have to be left out of replay because there is currently no defined strike zone, and there is no way to set a defined strike zone. Second, the use of replay on homeruns would be left up to the umpire’s discretion of when to use it. This part of replay in baseball has worked just fine since it has been in use and there is no need to change it. By giving each manager one red flag a game to throw, you keep the human element of the umpire’s making ninety nine percent of the calls, and you also would not extend game time all that much, if at all. Most games only have one or two calls a game that could be questioned, like the 1985 World Series or Armando Galarraga’s not-so-perfect game. In either of those cases replay could have been used to set calls right and change the results of the game to what they should have been.
It has been shown that baseball could benefit from replay. Don Denkinger and Jim Joyce are examples of this benefit. Replay should be expanded in baseball but only so much. If it is limited to homeruns and the base paths, and only one or two replays a game, then the game time would not increase dramatically, if at all, and there would be no problem getting one or two more calls correct. The replay would however have to be limited to just the MLB and no lower so as to prevent the use of replay from getting abused. Baseball would benefit from the expansion of replay and the league should expand its current uses of replay in the future before more calls like Joyce’s or Denkinger’s happen.