Baseball's storied past needs a facelift

Alright, after the latest barrage of missed calls by umpires in baseball, Major League Baseball has to adopt instant replay—don’t they?

There has been a plethora of bad calls the last few years constantly raising the question of whether or not baseball should adopt an instant replay policy. Currently, umpires can only go to instant replay to determine whether a ball left the field of play resulting in a homerun.

Last week in Atlanta the mother of all bad calls was made during a nineteen inning game between the Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Julio Lugo—yes, the same Julio Lugo that was in Boston at the turn of the century—slid into home plate where Pirates catcher Michael McKenry was waiting for him. The tag was applied and then it happened.

A quick wash outward of the umpire’s arms to signal the runner was safe at homeplate.

So he made a bad call—a fact the umpire would later admit to the media—but let’s break down exactly what it may cost everyone involved.

Maybe more shockingly than the blown call is the fact the Pittsburgh Pirates are competing for a playoff spot this year. At the time, the loss dropped the Bucs to one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for top spot in the Central Division. Imagine if you can, those same Pirates finding themselves one game out of the playoffs on the final day of the MLB regular season.

The last time Pittsburgh got to the playoffs was in 1992, ironically squaring off against the Atlanta Braves. The series would go seven games with a play at the plate winning it for Atlanta in the ninth inning—heartbreak.

But put the historical heartbreak aside for what the Pirates could be giving up as a result of one terrible call.

Millions of dollars.

Revenue for the team, players and coaches—not to mention the gambling money that would have been wagered on that game. I can see the poor bugger waiting for the result of the six-hour game, hanging on every pitch.

“C’mon Pittsburgh. If the Pirates can sneak out a victory I’ll win $2,000 on my Sports Select ticket,” he’d be saying to his buddies moments before throwing his chair through the television after witnessing the blown call, resulting in a gross loss of $2,800. Okay, maybe a little overkill but regardless of your views on sports betting, you have to admit that is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

Although there would’ve also been those who won so maybe all is fair in love and war on the gambling aspect of things.

Jim Joyce’s missed call resulted in Armando Galarraga losing a perfect game. The way Galarraga and Joyce handled the incident has been championed as on of the greatest displays of sportsmanship in professional sports. The two have since written a book called ‘Nobody’s Perfect: two men, one call, and a game for baseball history.’

But the question is, why do we accept wrong calls—I have always hated the notion of good and bad calls because ultimately they are either the right call or the wrong call, black and white, it’s as simple as that.

Baseball purists will tell you that instant replay will destroy the game. That the human error has always been a part of the game. I certainly can’t argue that it has always been a part of the game but why does getting the call right make the game worse off?

I understand that the human element creates controversy, and controversy creates dialogue, and dialogue creates interest, but I’ve never understood why everyone would be more happy getting the calls right. I personally believe that instant replay will make the game far better, not worse.

I’ve long argued that every pitch, hit, error, missed cut-off man, blocked ball, stolen base etc... can completely change the outcome of a game. I’ve seen umpires miss strike calls, for whatever reason, only to see the next pitch leave the park for a three-run homerun.

What was the count before the missed strike call?

The most obvious scenario is any count that had the batter hitting with two-strikes, which would have resulted in a strikeout, never giving the hitter an opportunity to hit the homerun. But even at say 0-1 instead of 1-0 the pitcher attacks the zone differently, aware he doesn’t need to try to even the count at 1-1 but can try to get the hitter to chase a pitch out of the strikezone.

It’s the butterfly effect of baseball and we all know it exists. One misplay or miscall results in a big crooked number on the scoreboard.

One more example and that’s it I promise—but there is just so many to choose from.

In 2009 the sweetheart Minnesota Twins played the big bad New York Yankees in the American League Divisional Series. The second game went to extras when in the eleventh inning Joe ‘Sideburns’ Mauer ripped a double off of a Yankees reliever. The ball was called foul but was clearly shown as landing fair, about six to eight inches inside the foul line.

Mauer would eventually single—baseball gods evening things out, some would say.

The next batter, Jason Kubel, singled. Mauer, who runs well for a catcher—or at least did prior to this season—would have probably scored on the single. But let’s say he got a bad jump and only got to third base, if the proper call was made on the originally Mauer hit.

Michael Cuddyer promptly followed up Kubel’s single with one of his own. Now, no one can argue Mauer would have crossed the plate as the go-ahead run in the top of the eleventh. Instead Mauer stood on third, where he would stay for the rest of the inning as the Yankees escaped the bases-loaded nobody-out jam to get out of the half inning.

The first batter up in the bottom half of the inning, Mark Texeira, hit a solo-homerun to win the game.

That blast would have only tied the game in the other scenario and that’s suggesting the Twins wouldn’t have scored more runs in the inning once Mauer plated. And that’s not even taking into account the psychological advantage the Yankees garnered by escaping the inning.

I can quite reasonably conceive a scenario where, if the that foul ball call against Joe Mauer is called correctly, Minnesota goes on to win the World Series.

That’s right, one call cost the Minnesota Twins the World Series, need I say more about the need for instant replay in baseball—wait till I get started on inaccurate science of calling balls and strikes.