Baseball Tossing Around Replay

An article in favor of replay in baseball.

I like Charlie Manuel's point:

"I like the fact that baseball has a human element in it," Charlie Manuel said. "And I think it's good that every time a call gets made, you've got two sides to it and people second-guess it and talk about it. I think that's what the game is about. I like that part the way it is, because there's always a conversation piece."

But the writer of the article goes here:

Obviously, we don't know how MLB would do it. But we do know how the Little League World Series did it last month when it tested a manager-challenge system. Each manager was given one challenge per game -- but if he challenged a call and got it right, he kept his challenge. If he got it wrong, he was done challenging for the day.

So how'd that one work out? In 32 games, there were only 16 calls reviewed. Half those calls turned out to be wrong. The average review took a whopping 52 seconds. And the average total delay -- from the moment the manager requested a review until the decision was announced -- was only 1 minute, 50 seconds. So you can't say that system slowed any games to a Molina-esque crawl, either. Can you?

Let me say this - people who argue in favor of over-regulation in ANYTHING - always make this point initially. They always say, "it won't be a big deal, it won't take very much extra time, you guys are overstating the problem." Cut to: five years down the line - watch an NFL game. What gets put into place isn't just a "rule," it is a "logic." If the "logic" of "getting it right" goes into place, then baby steps keep piling on to "get it right, get it right, get it right." It is never ending. Look at California right now with our smoking laws. At first, they said "no smoking" in bars. People resisted because it is paternalistic. But we voted it in. And it helped. Bars are better now. People are healthier. So advocates take it a step further - no smoking in public areas in apartment complexes or within 20 feet of certain things. Eventually, it will be no smoking in your home, because after all the "logic" is already in place. How long will it be before universal healthcare advocates point to the excessive cost to taxpayers of treating folks with smoking-related diseases? Then how long is it before we ban smoking altogether?

Look also at drunken driving laws. Advocates of such laws have stiffened the penalties way out of proportion to the crime. Nowadays it is common to have "drunken driving" checkpoints. What are we, Palestinians living under Israeli occupation? Who wants to live in a society like this, where soon we won't be able to smoke or drink or eat fast food or watch a manager yell at an umpire in baseball? Not me.