Three months into the introduction of a new technology to an old sport, instant replay appears to have taken a liking to the New York Mets.
For three consecutive days, video-reviewed calls have gone the Mets’ way, and two of them appear to have tilted a game’s competitive balance in New York’s favor. On Monday, May 25, a three-run homer by Gary Sheffield was upheld in a game the Mets won 5-2. On Saturday, May 23, a two-run homer by Omir Santos – with two outs in the top of the ninth, mind you – was supported by video and gave the Mets a 3-2 win.
Even on Friday, May 24, when the Mets lost 12-5 to the Red Sox, a potential home run by Boston’s Kevin Youkilis was called foul with the help of a clubhouse video console.
Mets manager Jerry Manuel was asked after Monday’s game if he now counts himself among instant replay’s greatest admirers.
“I’m a fan of getting it right,” he said. “If they got it right, that’s what’s important.”
Getting it right, of course, is the purpose of baseball’s new instant replay policy, instituted on August 28, 2008. Some purists argued that an umpire’s point of view, and the mistakes that go with it, is part of baseball. Others believed that games averaging two hours and 52 minutes should not be slowed down any further.
“Once in a while umpires get it wrong, but so be it. It evens out for everybody,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella has said, according to Baseball Digest.
Yet surely there is nothing more pure than calling a home run a home run and a foul ball a foul ball, six-minute delays (as was the case on Monday) or not.
Home runs and foul balls are just about all that instant replay can help call in Major League Baseball. After the sport’s general managers voted 25-5 to recommend the NFL-, NBA-, NHL-adopted system in November 2007, a consensus emerged that balls, strikes and close plays on the bases were issues too nit-picky to review, whereas potential home runs tend to possess more of a game-changing nature. Also of note is the fact that neither football nor basketball nor hockey features any calls involving the sheer optical challenge of peering at a fast-departing home run shot.
Of course, even human error has a place in baseball’s instant replay rule. Video-based rulings still err on the side of the observer, as they famously do in hockey.
“The standard used by the crew chief when reviewing a play will be whether there is clear and convincing evidence that the umpire’s decision on the field was incorrect and should be reversed,” reads a 2008 MLB release.
Piniella’s notion – that umpires’ errors tend to even out – applies equally well to video reviews and their long-term benefit to the Mets, whose video luck will someday run dry. But for now, from most perches in Queens, instant replay is looking like a very, very good thing.
