Staff Writer
In 1931 a minor league team in Columbus, Ohio became the first professional baseball team to install lights and play night games. The innovation was so popular that the minor league team outdrew some major league teams in attendance.
Nevertheless, major league owners harrumphed. Baseball, they insisted, ought to be played under God’s good sunlight. Night games were bush.
Four more years passed before the Cincinnati Reds install arc lights and became the first major league team to play a game after dark. Slowly — very slowly in some cases — other teams followed. Yankee Stadium wasn’t illuminated until 1946. The Cubs held out until 1988 before putting lights in Wrigley Field.
Plastic batting helmets were introduced in the 1950s. The first players to wear them were called sissies. Hall of Famer Frank Frisch, a popular banquet speaker at the time, could usually count on a laugh from his audience when he decried the “ice buckets” some players put on their heads before they went up to bat.
Today, of course, night games and plastic batting helmets are ingrained into the game as much as the seventh-inning stretch, but both of them required some getting used to. Suffice it to say, baseball has not always been eager to embrace new technology.
We’re seeing the familiar pattern again today. For the second year in a row while we’re watching intense playoff games we’re also wondering whose idea it was to give Mr. Magoo a mask and a whisk broom. The quality of umpiring appears to be an an all-time low.
Bad calls have clearly impacted a number games and been absolutely critical in two of them. We know they’re bad calls because we get to see the replays. Sometimes we get to see the play from several angles. The camera can zoom in or zoom out. The pictures can be played in slow motion, or even stopped.
That’s technology. Just as much as arc lights and batting helmets.
We can sit in our living rooms with our feet propped up and see the play far better than the guy in a blue uniform who is three feet away from it when it happened.
Sadly, the guy in the blue uniform is the guy who has to make the call. He doesn’t have access to the technology and, in most cases, no one else is permitted to use the technology to help him.
For the most part all that technology serves only two purposes — it amuses the television audience and it frustrates the managers. Some day soon, I hope, it will be used to help the umpires make correct calls. Some day soon, I hope, baseball will adopt a liberal use of video replay.
I’m well aware there are plenty of astute people who oppose the use of instant replay, even when it could be used to reverse obvious mistakes by the umpires. Most of them advance one of two arguments.
1. Let’s not remove the human element.
My answer: The use of video replay doesn’t remove anything — it only enhances what is already there. Baseball will always need umpires and umpires will always be essential to the integrity of the game. The use of pictures, when appropriate, merely improves the chance that the ultimate call will be the correct one.
2. The game takes too long to play as is. If the umpires are going to stop and review every close play it will be interminable.
My answer: I agree fully with the points made in that argument. But I believe video review could be accomplished without holding up the game to any great extent if the review were conducted by someone other than an umpire on the field. The reviewer could be seated at press level with access to all television pictures. He could be a retired umpire or any impartial person with a solid knowledge of the rules could do the job. In most cases it shouldn’t take him long to assess the available pictures.
Remember, when we watch a game on television we usually see replays (sometimes from multiple angles) before the next pitch is thrown. If the umpire missed the call we usually know it before the next pitch is thrown.
A replay official would be seeing the same pictures. If he deems it necessary to intercede, he could usually do so within the normal flow of the game.
I find it encouraging that players and umpires have scheduled an offseason meeting to address player complaints about umpiring. The players union, the umpires union and the commissioner’s office have all promised to monitor the meeting.
Just maybe, the whole bunch of them will decide that 21st Century baseball should utilize 21st Century technology.
n n n
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Roy Halladay is a much better pitcher than Don Larsen was — except for one day in Larsen’s career.
Larsen, of course, is famous as the pitcher who threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Last week Halladay became the second pitcher in baseball history to author a no-hitter in the postseason.
Look, I think what Halladay did was fantastic. But I’m tired of hearing it compared to Larsen’s accomplishment.
Halladay’s feat was in the National League Division Series. There was no such thing in Larsen’s day. In fact, there was no such thing until 1995.
The World Series has been around since 1903. Larsen remains the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the World Series.
n n n
Pitchers Phil Hughes, Carl Pavano and Michael Dunn have already participated in postseason games. So have infielders Robinson Cano and Freddy Sanchez and outfielders Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera. All of them are Thunder alumni.
n n n
Typically catchers bat at the lower end of the batting order, but two of the playoff teams (the Braves and Giants) hit their catcher fourth and another (the Twins) hit their catcher third. A fourth team (the Rays) played two games with the catcher batting leadoff.
By the way, the Rays played five Division Series games and never used the same batting order twice.
n n n
A FEW STATISTICS: The Yankees looked like the Bronx Bombers of yesteryear. In three games against the Twins their slugging average was .514...Giants pitchers compiled a 1.66 earned run average in four games against the Braves. The Phillies produced a 1.00 in three against the Reds. Those two pitching staffs will face each other in the NLCS...In four games the Braves’ middle infielders committed six errors...Giants relief pitcher Sergio Romo wound up with an ERA of 40.50 — and a record of 1-0...The Rangers’ Ian Kinsler not only batted .444, but three of his eight hits were home runs...In 15 Division Series games five triples were hit. One was by the Rays’ Carlos Pena, who didn’t have a triple in 582 regular season plate appearances...The Yankees were the only team to complete a playoff series without committing an error.
No comments:
Post a Comment