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No Perfect Solution

The Hot Corner

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: September 14, 2008

It's now been roughly two weeks since Major League Baseball decided to implement a form of instant replay and two things have predictably failed to happen.

1) The sky is still in, well, the sky. It has yet to fall.

2) Baseball has not become infinitely and instantly better because of replay's existence.

Maybe I've been distracted because of King Football's re-emergence on the sporting stage, but wasn't this supposed to make every questionable call righteous while forever ending the endless arguments over bad calls?

Apparently that's not exactly the case.

Conveniently, the new system's first live-game test came right here in the Bay Area to dispute an Alex Rodriguez home-run blast that careened off a Tropicana catwalk.

In short, the initial, on-field call awarded A-Rod the dinger. Rays players and manager Joe Maddon disagreed. History, though small in scale, was made.

After a little over two minutes of deliberation, the decision was phoned back to the field and it upheld the home run call. Case closed. Technology triumphs again, right?

Well...again...not exactly.

Here's a quote from Rays closer Troy Percival after the game from an Associated Press recap:

"I thought it was clearly fair, but after looking at the replay, I wouldn't have known what to call, to be honest with you," Percival said. "The replay made it more cloudy for me."

The replay made it more cloudy?!?

What's up with that? It's instant replay. It's video confirmation. It's black-and-white.

Yet again...not exactly.

Replay has been used in pro football for years now, and if there is one thing fans and anyone else knows, it's that sometimes there is just no clear-cut answer - reviewed or not.

In this inaugural instance, the call seemed to be correct and the homer came in the ninth inning of a game where New York had relative control.

But what if that was the potential game-winner of a make-or-break type contest? Then there's furor over not only the call, but the system as well.

If the point still seems vague, it's simply that there is - and never will be - a foolproof solution to finding 100-percent accuracy on calls in any sport.

The current MLB replay system is designed to judge only boundary decisions - foul balls, home runs, etc. But is that where it will stop? Will fans and pundits completely refrain from clamoring over close plays at first, or at the plate, with replay's continued existence?

Chances are, no. Does QuesTech ring a bell?

In theory, I am O.K. with these boundary-type plays being under review - especially if rulings come back to the field in no more than a couple minutes like two weeks ago in St. Pete.

But to expect every call to be a no-brainer after review is naive. That, conversely, is plain-and-simple.

Eric Horchy can be reached at 727-815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com

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