You may remember, a few weeks back, that there was a slew of controversial home run calls that made people question whether umpires needed some assistance in tracking long flies. I made the suggestion to implement instant replay for home run calls only. Today, ESPN.com is reporting that baseball is moving towards just that type of system. How they're doing it, however, leaves a whole lot to be desired.
The report contains a memo, sent to MLB umpires, that outlines the system in a Q&A format. When discussing how a replay request would be initiated, the memo states: "...instant replay will be available for use at the sole discretion of the crew chief if there is uncertainty among the crew as to what happened...[a] crew chief's decision to use or not use instant replay on a particular call would be final, and not subject to second-guessing by team or league personnel. Team personnel would not have any right to demand instant replay."
This is an awesome idea. Because we all know that umpires, referees, etc. are always so eager to second guess their own decisions, and have someone go take a look to see if they actually made the right call. Seriously, what would the harm be in giving each team a couple challenges per game and letting the manager exercise the challenges at his own discretion?
But that isn't even close to the worst part of the plan. Here is an explanation of how the system would work (this is mind-numbing, so I'll cut out the irrelevant portions and make comments throughout):
MLB is in the process of setting up an instant replay video "war" room at MLB Advanced Media's offices. The war room will be staffed by a replay official...and several video technicians...[i]n the event a crew chief decides to use instant replay, the crew chief would use a dedicated communications link that will be available in each ball park to contact the replay official.
A war room? They couldn't just have a replay official in each park? They're going to be using the TV feeds as it is, how difficult would it be to have someone on-site? What if the communication system breaks down between the crew chief and the war room, do they have a secret red phone to reconnect? And what happens if there are challenges in multiple games at the same time? Do they have to take a number and wait in line? I sure hope not, I waited ten minutes this morning to get a pound of turkey sliced at Kroger's, and I'm pretty sure their system is more failsafe than MLB's.
The replay official will tell the crew chief what the replay official sees on the video replay or replays. The replay official will only report what he sees on the replay video or videos, and will not offer any advice or recommendation as to what the call should be.
I'm sorry, what??? He can tell him what he saw, but not make a judgment call? How exactly does that work? Maybe he can tell the ump that there's a hot chick down the right field line while he's at it? This is like one of those bad Law & Order episodes, where the psychiatrist can't reveal whether the suspect killed his wife because of doctor/patient privilege, but she says that she'll walk to the door, and if she doesn't break her ankle on the way then you can assume he killed his wife.
Based on all the information available to the crew chief (including what the crew saw in real time, and what the replay official sees on video), the crew chief will decide whether there is "clear and convincing evidence" that the original call by the crew is correct or incorrect. The original call would be reversed only if the crew chief felt there was a "clear error" on the original call.
Oh. My. God. Mere words cannot describe how stupid this clause is (which is quite ironic if you think about it, since I have to use words to describe the stupidity). So, based on what the crew chief saw (which he's already uncertain about, since he and only he can initiate a challenge) and what the replay official told him (and who knows how well the official can verbally illustrate what he's seen to the ump), the crew chief then decides whether there is "clear and convincing evidence" of an event that he wasn't even sure about to begin with.
The only reason I can think that MLB would decide to use this method is that they don't want to upset the umpires by questioning their judgment and/or taking them out of the loop. I thought we were past the Richie Phillips days when baseball was afraid of the umpires union; I thought that this was the new era of cooperation.
Without question, this is just horrible, top to bottom. It's like Bud Selig went to a reverse consulting company and said, "hey, we've got this great idea, see if you can find as many ways as possible to screw this up." Seriously, where do you even come up with the idea of the war room? You'd have to try really hard to mess this up as bad as they did. Lucky for us though, MLB just seems to be a master at this.
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