Dodgers Diaries

Here’s an idea for utilizing instant replay, not only in baseball, but in all sports: If TV can show IN AN INSTANT that the on-field official blew a call, then another official watching from the booth should have the opportunity to overrule the on-field call.

If baseball or football or any other sport were invented today, rather than 100 or more years ago, their respective Abner Doubeldays would place an official in the TV booth, able to see a play from multiple angles and even run them simultaneously so it’s possible to see the order of events. This is especially true in football, where it’s much more difficult for a ref to be in the perfect position to make the right call, than in baseball, where most of the action occurs at or near one of the four bases.

I’m all for using instant replay to get the call right. What I can’t abide are the lengthy delays that occur because the officials on the field have to go someplace they can watch the game on TV to see what actually happened. This could easily be remedied, however, by giving the replay official the power to overrule the on-field arbiters. This official, like the millions watching on TV, would know in less than a minute whether the call was blown.

Football tried it this way for a year but inexplicably abandoned the replay official in the booth, giving us today’s system in which the ref has to walk off the field and go under the booth like some 19th century photographer. The process is supposedly limited to two minutes, but that only includes time under the hood. At least another two minutes is spent deciding where the ball should be placed, what down it is, and whether the challenge counts against a time out.

If baseball were to adopt instant replay for calls like Jim Joyce’s ruination of Armando Galarragea’s perfect game, it must be with a strict time limit. If the replay ump can’t overrule a call within 30 seconds, then it should stand.

There are still plenty of reasons to oppose use of replay. Can it be used for balls and strikes? (I say no). Is the ball dead or do the umpires have the power to advance other baserunners? How many times may it be used in a game (I can’t stand football’s challenge system, which penalizes teams that have already been penalized by bad calls). These are all reasons to limit the use of instant replay in baseball to specific plays like fair or foul or home run calls. But any discussion of additional instant replay must begin with an emphasis on instant.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL