MLB instant replay made it's debut this season and there is a massive divide between the fans who absolutely hate it and the fans who accept it as a necessary part of the game that has come long past its time. I had some degree a skepticism on the idea at first, I wanted to see how the reviews fell into the flow of the game but after a season of watching, I'm all in. Get the calls right! If replay existed in the past Armando Galarraga would have his perfect game, Joe Mauer's foul ball in the '09 ALDS in the 11th would have been fair, 1991 Ron Gant isn't call out at first in Game 2 after being wrestled off the bag, would any of us know Jeffery Maier? Would Don Denkinger be known for something other than his call in Game 6 of the '85 Series? Just a handful of moments of baseball history where the "human element" rewrote baseball history with incorrect events that we live with to this very day as "facts". Any argument made against replay can never live up to the undeniable fact that it is very necessary to the integrity of the sport.
Many of the arguments against replay that I have been reading all seem to boil down to two things....either this "human element" we all seem to love so much or how long games are taking or the pause in game flow because of the replay. Let's realistically look at each point, eh? The "human element".....I just don't get the human element. When we have the human element in our lives it results in us getting cheese when we didn't ask for it, receiving incorrect change and arguing with a cashier or having a dented front bumper because some idiot didn't apply his parking break. The human element essentially boils down the charm of having umpires make incorrect calls.....do you hear yourselves? How is that good? Do you honestly think the umpires enjoy having a Buckner like stigma follow their career because their "human element" cost a guy a perfect game or a team a World Series game? Instant replay maintains the human element but also affords a safety net for when it fails because to err is human but the video never lies. Now let's talk about how MLB baseball, in attempting to make the right calls has so immensely inconvenienced your life with a few extra minutes of baseball. Let's go pure apples to apples here....video review vs. what managers used to do. Sure it had it's charm and the crowds loved it but what did Bobby Cox and Billy Martin ever actually accomplish by running out on the field, screaming themselves blue in the face as the jumbo screen clearly showed the umpire blow a call as the crowd went bananas. When it was all said and done, we wasted 4 minutes of game time, your bench coach is now the manager and the officials were powerless to change the incorrect call anyway. How is this a good use of time again? If it takes 5 minutes to review it and your manager doesn't get tossed, the call gets right and the ump takes a mia culpa for his "human element" acting up again, I fail to see the issue? Does looking at the tape in NY while the lead umpire wears a headset and awaits word really interrupt more that a manager with his cap backwards, kicking dirt and making a fool of himself in front of 40,000 people and a national TV audience? Those questions are pretty much rhetorical because there is only one sane answer.
I think what bugs me most is "the games are too long" complaint. If it's that painful to watch three hours and nine minutes of baseball as opposed to the three hours and three minutes you so happily sat through last year, watch something else. This isn't new...the game didn't go from 2:23 to 3:09 from 2013 to 2014. No! We added TV breaks, pregame shows, mid inning pitching changes, defensive shifting, arguing managers, mound visits by the pitching coach, stepping out of the box to make sure your cup fits "just so", checking the runner at 1st 9x in an at bat, bench clearing brawls and a hundred other things that adds a minute here and a minute there that bring much less value to the game as instant replay and getting calls correct.
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