Instant replays and baseball don't mix

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(Edited)

Quickly up front...I don't know if I've ever posted to Sports Talk Social before, this might be my first time and this will be quick. Anyway, let's talk baseball...

I'm a baseball purist. With other sports, I'm ambivalent. With baseball, I'm not. You know the movie "Mystic Pizza"? Remember the slogan?



The slogan was, "You don't monkey with tradition." (Or something like that.)

I dislike any and all monkeying with baseball. This instant replay business is all nonsense in my view when it comes to baseball. With other sports, I'm fine with it. And, yes, I understand the get-the-call-right ideology. And, yes, I get that the technology is there. I'm a believer that just because the technology is there doesn't meant that it should replace what was there prior.

Although I'm okay with perverting other sports in the name of moving the game forward, baseball is different.

You might ask, "How? How is baseball different?"

The answer is simple. Baseball is different because the umpire is a part of the game. A ball that bounces off the umpire is the same as a ball that bounces off a rock in the infield. The umpire is a part of the game as much as is the chalk lines on the field, the ball and its stitches, the tar on the bat, the clods of grass on the infield, or the pigeon that swoops down in the middle of a play. Baseball is dynamic and alive and it is human. It is not pinpoint precision computerized, laser-focused robo-umpire.

Let the umpires be a part of the game.

With all this challenge-the-call nonsense, I miss the manager-umpire arguments. Yes, those arguments were often staged or scripted. Yes, the manager often put on a show to appease the crowd or get his team riled and hyped. It's part of the game.

Yes, umpires are sometimes wrong. But, that's okay. It's a part of the game! I'd hate to see some laser beam robo-ump who never misses a strike or ball call get put back behind the plate. A good pitcher is able to finagle a batter into swinging at a ball just off the plate. A good pitcher is able to finagle an umpire into calling a ball just off the black as a strike.

As far as I'm concerned, you can change other sports. It makes for more time for commercials and runs to the fridge. But...

...leave baseball alone!



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!PIZZA
!BEER

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@eii, sorry!

You can call the PIZZA bot a maximum of 10 times per day.

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