MLB Agrees to Instant Replay

It took them long enough. After a series of botched calls over the past few months, including in high profile games involving both the Yankees and Mets, MLB has decided that instant replay is an idea whose time has come.

Major League Baseball still hasn’t determined when the use of replays will start. Installation of equipment has been going on at ballparks, and officials have said they hoped to start using replay in August.

Replays will be limited to boundary calls, such as determining whether fly balls were fair or foul, or whether they went over fences.

“I told our members that it’s just another tool that we can use to get the play right, not to look at it as a negative, but a positive,” World Umpires Association president John Hirschbeck said. “As hard as you try, as much as you hustle, sometimes with just the landscape of the ballparks nowadays, it’s hard to tell. So if we can get it right, you know what, let’s use it as a tool to get it right.”

Apparently there were issues over which umpires would view the replay, where the replay viewing would take place, and even as late as this afternoon there were reports that the umpires and MLB were not going to reach an agreement on instant replay in time for the playoffs.

History might look a whole lot different had baseball adopted instant replay more than a decade ago, if they took another look at the infamous Jeffrey Maier home run during the playoffs between the Yankees and Orioles. Derek Jeter hit a fly ball into the right field corner, and the umpire ruled it a home run, even though the replay clearly showed fan interference. The Yankees tied the game as a result and went on to win the game and the series, culminating in the World Series win over the Braves.

Fans in the future will find comfort in knowing that umpires will now be able to get those kinds of calls right.