Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Enough with the Replays Already

...at least when it comes to the bases.

If MLB wants to use video replays to see if a ball is a home run or not, particularly in a big game, fine.

To take a close look at every single tag play on the bases?  Fuhgeddaboutit.  It's turning the greatest game ever invented into a nightly bout of "Twister," without the rewarding carnal proximity that diversion slyly promised.

Really—the potential reward for holding the tag on the runner has now morphed into a situation where, as often as not, the fielder is subtly or not-so-subtly just shoving the runner off the base.

This was really what happened with Sancho's infamous pick-off at third earlier this month.  Sure, the big dumb jerk should never have let it become that close, but smart infielders now routinely give that little extra push to get the out and the umps—who seem increasingly befuddled by the modern game—just shrug.

Which almost led to disaster with the Big Red One's ankle last night, and which I think accounts in part for the growing number of crazy, injurious dives back to the bag.

Enough already.  It's yet another innovation by the Lords of Baseball that is reducing this to the sort of squabbly, fourth-grade version of baseball:  'You wuz too off the base!'  'Oh, no I wasn't!  You just kicked the stick away!' 'THAT stick ain't the base, THAT one is!'

And so on.

9 comments:

Leinstery said...

I kind of miss the glory days of bad calls, the Yankees were aided by a few of them in the 09 playoffs.

Anyways, last night's game was reminiscent of a game they played against the Angels two years ago, the Judge homerun game. Long and frustrating and followed by a 7 game losing streak. Expect CC to hurt himself coming off the mound tomorrow night.

Anonymous said...

HC66--so you long for the days of bad calls that unfairly decided the outcome of a game. Thanks for sharing.

JM said...

There's bad calls, and there's calls you can only see by studying each frame of the video. It's the latter that can be so irritating.

There have always been bad calls. We lived.

But they should fire Angel Hernandez.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Agreed, JM. I can live with bad calls. Guys constantly injuring themselves on the bases...mm, not so much.

I remember once talking to one of my neurologists, who told me that if they did a brain scan of you every hour, you'd go nuts with worry over all the suspicious-looking things that pop up.

If the unexamined life is not worth living, the over-examined life is meshuga.

Carl J. Weitz said...

LOL...if they fire Hernandez now it will be seen as retaliation due to his lawsuit against MLB which in my view has no merit. He's one of the worst umpires in history but they are reluctant to fire him lest they be sued for racial discrimination. And he did.

Unknown said...

Video replay is killing sports.

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