MLB '10

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

I don't see how a sport that still allows double plays to be turned by middle infielders in the vicinity of second base can introduce instant reply. Plus, as Alex has alluded to, unlike with football or tennis, there are things that can be happening with other base runners that can be affected by the blown call. It sounds like a big headache to puzzle out the situations in which it could be used from the situations in which it couldn't.

I've always hated the lame excuse of, "it's for the safety of the fielder."

Regarding ambiguous post-replay-overturn situations, in some way baseball already has a mechanism for that built in. There are several situations (ball goes out of play or defensive interference are a couple examples) where awarding a runner a base advancement comes down to an umpire's judgment call as to how far the baserunner might have made it without the situation occurring.

e.g. with a runner on first going on the pitch, there's a ground ball fielded b the shortstop, whose throw to first sails into the stands. If that runner from first base had rounded 2nd and was heading toward third, it's the umpires' discretion whether to say he was at 2nd and award him 3rd on the overthrow, or that he would have reasonably gotten to third base even on a good throw, and therefore award him home.

So it's not THAT much of a stretch to allow for some ambiguity in instant replay instances. Though it still personally doesn't sit well with me. Currently those situations are uncommon and as such people accept them as necessary edge cases that add to the idiosyncratic charm of baseball. If replay increases the frequency too much, the charm disappears.