Replay Rule

mikeandrews

New Member
Jul 19, 2005
7
Hello all,

This has bugged me for years and I apologize if it has been discussed ad nauseum previously. I absolutely hate the replay rule as is. I would love to see it as follows ...

If a close call is made and your eyes tell you the ump got it wrong (or your player or coach on the bases) you have 10 seconds to challenge. That's it! No using technology. If you think the umpire missed it go for it.

I hate it when someone is called out when his spike came off a 1/4" for 0.5 seconds.

Maybe we can automatically confirm some things (homers) but you get the idea.
 

Saints Rest

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
I would like to see this go one step further. Let a ref watching the video feed that everyone else sees determine all replay reviews. He/she has to decide if it gets reviewed in real time. Then that person speaks to the game ref as the two of them watch it together once. Not 8 views of 5 different camera angles, at 3 different speeds. Just give the ref a chance to see it from a different point of view to correct something egregious. Otherwise, move on.

But the reviews could be for anything that a ref/ump would normally make a call on -- change of possession, out of bounds, rule violations, etc.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,753
Pittsburgh, PA
I don't see why the use of technology should enter into it. They either did or didn't get the call right, if you're the aggrieved team you want them to get it right, if that means someone in your clubhouse is watching on a few seconds' delay so they can see what they think, who cares? The matter of how much time they get to challenge is more fair, you can't hold up the game forever - but also, I see managers standing at the top of the dugout steps holding out their hands to say "hang on a sec" maybe once or twice a game. Is that really such an egregious time waste?

The changes they've implemented in minor league baseball - strict pitch clock, max 1 stepping out of the batters box, max 2 throw-overs to bases - are coming to MLB. Those will have far more impact on the pace of the game than anything to do with replays.

(I don't like how long it takes to get a replay result either, but my main complaint is that we should be able to hear what they're talking about as they're deciding)
 

OCD SS

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Hello all,

This has bugged me for years and I apologize if it has been discussed ad nauseum previously. I absolutely hate the replay rule as is. I would love to see it as follows ...

If a close call is made and your eyes tell you the ump got it wrong (or your player or coach on the bases) you have 10 seconds to challenge. That's it! No using technology. If you think the umpire missed it go for it.

I hate it when someone is called out when his spike came off a 1/4" for 0.5 seconds.

Maybe we can automatically confirm some things (homers) but you get the idea.
I think the issue here is that you're confusing the POV of us watching at home on TV vs the manager's view from the duggout. The system as it exists isn't perfect (I'd like to see more calls considered reviewable if it means getting those calls correct), but just saying "no technology" when the umps themselves are clearly going to be using modern technology to make sure the call is right is just placing a silly side-show restriction on the manager.

I would like to see this go one step further. Let a ref watching the video feed that everyone else sees determine all replay reviews. He/she has to decide if it gets reviewed in real time. Then that person speaks to the game ref as the two of them watch it together once. Not 8 views of 5 different camera angles, at 3 different speeds. Just give the ref a chance to see it from a different point of view to correct something egregious. Otherwise, move on.

But the reviews could be for anything that a ref/ump would normally make a call on -- change of possession, out of bounds, rule violations, etc.
When replay was first instituted I was in favor of something like this, with the crew chief essentially manning the video review and adjusting calls on the fly, but I think umps have still shown themselves to try and confirm their co-workers' calls whenever possible so as not to show up them up (or reduce their performance ratings). If the system was just peer reviewed I think we'd have even less overturned calls. Ultimately managers calling for a review serves as a nice check to try and nudge the system into more balance.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,271
AZ
Hello all,

This has bugged me for years and I apologize if it has been discussed ad nauseum previously. I absolutely hate the replay rule as is. I would love to see it as follows ...

If a close call is made and your eyes tell you the ump got it wrong (or your player or coach on the bases) you have 10 seconds to challenge. That's it! No using technology. If you think the umpire missed it go for it.

I hate it when someone is called out when his spike came off a 1/4" for 0.5 seconds.

Maybe we can automatically confirm some things (homers) but you get the idea.
If the spike is off the base the player is safe. If the ump saw the spike off the base that is what he would call. Replay should match what an ump who is perfect would call and what a perfect ump would call is what is correct.

I can understand liking to speed it up or not liking having to delay knowing what the call is. But I think that is a different point.

What I would change about replay is having the ump that made the call look at the replay immediately before control does. The ump who made the call knows what he thought he saw and will immediately know if it didn’t go down like he thought. We give the benefit of the doubt to the call on the field but Zi think it would be good to know whether we should. If the guy who made the call was shaky to start with, or uncertain and just guessed as best he could, replay central should know that before letting the call stand. They should make their best judgment without giving defer3nce to the call on the field unless they truly do not know what happened.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 23, 2001
10,229
Reply sucks. It slows the game down and just replaces arguments about whether the ref got the call right in real time with arguments about whether the replay official got the call right. It's worse in the NFL (where nobody can agree on what a catch is anymore) and the NBA (when does a challenge ever result in a call being overturned, especially on charges?), but its bad in baseball too. Technology might solve some problems but it just creates new ones to replace them.
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
SoSH Member
Sep 27, 2016
21,753
Pittsburgh, PA
I love the meme-gripe "nobody knows what a catch is anymore!", as if there was ever some shared idea of what a catch was or wasn't among all NFL-watchers and we upset the applecart of what was a previously uniform and universally-understood system. No, what preceded replay review was a lot of officials getting a lot of calls wrong, and being a lot more inconsistent, all the time. In every sport. It's the NFL equivalent of saying "all these basketball players carry and travel all the time and it's never called!", or, I dunno, complaining about the NHL mandating facemasks.

But baseball has solved its ambiguity problems. There used to be the neighborhood play on double plays, where the guy doesn't touch the base to put the person out and they call it an out anyway. They got rid of that. There used to be takeout slides into every base, where infielders got injured not infrequently from aggressive players who'd been put out just going hard at someone for no reason other than to hurt them, no sporting value. They got rid of that. They used to have all manner of nonsense result because a bad ump called a catch a trap, or called a trap a catch, or called a tag where there wasn't one. Or a foul down the line that was actually a home run. You know what got rid of that? Replay.
 

bsj

Renegade Crazed Genius
SoSH Member
Dec 6, 2003
22,774
Central NJ SoSH Chapter
MY biggest issue with replay, in all sports, is the threshold to overturn.

We have the technology to ensure every play is called in the most likely correct way possible. So...if a call made on the field, with the naked eye, in real time, is found more likely than not to be wrong using replay and technology, it should be overturned. Hard stop. It should not have to be overwhelming. 60/40 should mean a change. Deferring to the call on the field when you think its more likely than wrong, a call that was made in a split second, is stupid and more about keeping human officials employed than anything about the integrity of the game.

Just my take
 

Dewey'sCannon

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
869
Maryland
I think they should do more of what the NFL seems to be doing - correcting (or confirming) calls by review from the booth before a challenge is even made.

For baseball, they should have a fifth umpire who's part of each crew that's assigned to replay - onsite, not in NY - and they can immediately review any close call and signal the crew chief to pause while they review the call, and announce whether the call is confirmed or overturned. Shouldn't take more than a minute in most cases
 

OCD SS

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Isn’t the point of the NY/NJ replay center that they have access to more camera feeds and angles? If it’s too hard to set up this infrastructure for 30 parks, MLB could retain the centralized facility and just rely on radios/ cellular … the crews are already mic’s now anyway.
 

LogansDad

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
29,050
Alamogordo
The biggest issue I have with replay (in both MLB and the NHL) is that they allow teams to hold up play while they determine if they want to challenge. Give them 5, maybe 10 second, tops. If they don't make the call, then we move on.
 

Saints Rest

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
I think they should do more of what the NFL seems to be doing - correcting (or confirming) calls by review from the booth before a challenge is even made.

For baseball, they should have a fifth umpire who's part of each crew that's assigned to replay - onsite, not in NY - and they can immediately review any close call and signal the crew chief to pause while they review the call, and announce whether the call is confirmed or overturned. Shouldn't take more than a minute in most cases
This is what I was trying to say. Very similar to VAR in soccer. I think this should apply to all sports.
 

grsharky7

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,243
Berlin, PA
We’ll, there have certainly been rumors that MLB did not want to deal with the embarrassment of a missed call deciding the series, and was providing some extra help…
I’ve heard more than one Yankees fan mention this over the year, they believe someone in the crew had an earpiece and MLB told them to overturn the call. I always laugh, even if they did, both on field calls were terrible and there was no doubt they should be overturned.

As for the current replay system, I hate that guys try to get cheap outs when guys are getting up off the bag and hold their gloves there.
 

mikeandrews

New Member
Jul 19, 2005
7
Another rule that bother's me is the "Runnner's Lane". To me it's an easy fix ... mirror the curent one into fair territory (lessen the width). Make it incumbent upon the fielders to provide a clear attempt to complete the play while allowing the runner to run in a straight line in a safe zone.
 

Martin and Woods

New Member
Dec 8, 2017
81
Another rule that bother's me is the "Runnner's Lane". To me it's an easy fix ... mirror the curent one into fair territory (lessen the width). Make it incumbent upon the fielders to provide a clear attempt to complete the play while allowing the runner to run in a straight line in a safe zone.
I'd like to see them keep the lane where it is and mirror the bag into foul territory, a la softball, which would also help reduce collisions.