Before television and instant replay, umpires could get away with it.
No more. Instant replay lets you know exactly what happened.
I’m not talking about the plays you have to watch five times to determine if the right call was made. I’m talking about obvious calls, like Angels catcher Mike Napoli clearly tagging Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada at third with neither of the Yankees runners with a foot on the bag.
The thing is, a replay official in the press box could have reversed the called instantly (get it, instant...ly), and in a shorter amount of time than the resulting argument took.
If that had happened, we’d be talking about the game instead of the controversy. We’d be talking about the players rather than the umpire. We would have felt the game was decided in total fairness instead of making up excuses for how the Yankees won.
It doesn’t hurt the game to use instant replay. And it only takes longer to do it the way the NFL does, making it an excuse to cram in three more commercials.
Commissioner Bud Selig made an instant decision a few years ago to let an All-Star game end in a tie. Let him make an instant decision now — give us instant replay for this week’s World Series.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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