The Yankees got an out they shouldn’t have. Secretly, they probably applauded the sales job, wishing they could do the same. I also have no problem accepting what might be a bad call against a team I’m rooting for because baseball history tells us that down the road my team will get a call it may not deserve.Įven the Indians couldn’t get too excited over the act Wise pulled off in the first row down the left-field line. I’d rather watch a player or manager get in a losing argument with an umpire about a disputed call than watch all four umpires huddle around a TV screen to see if they got it right. But it takes away some of the magic of the game, some of the things that are as traditional about baseball as hot dogs and cold beer. Sure, instant replay may right some wrongs. Television cameras in the high definition age can do wondrous things, but there are still some calls so borderline and some angles so awkward that nothing is 100 percent certain. Replays showed Galarraga got the out at first base just ahead of the runner, but he was called safe and the perfect game and no-hitter were history.įootball has spoiled us with instant replay, making us believe all calls eventually are made correctly even when that isn’t always so. On the flip side, Armando Galarraga would have had a perfect game for Detroit two years ago if umpire Jim Joyce made the right call on what should have been the game’s 27th out. Nothing new there, since Don Larsen got a questionable call in his favor on the final strike of his perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Use instant replay or pitch-tracking technology on balls and strikes and Matt Cain probably doesn’t get his perfect game for San Francisco a few weeks ago, when some of the strike calls in the later innings seemed charitable at best. Things aren’t always fair, but it’s baseball and they tend to even out over time. It’s part of the beauty of the game, just as the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium and the Green Monster at Fenway Park flout the idea of perfect symmetry across baseball. No one knows what the strike zone really is, but we do know it’s a moving target between umpires and leagues that has resisted definition even after more than 60 years of televised games. Can a manager throw a red flag on the field on a pick off move when figuring out what is a balk really is remains subjective to even umpires?Īnd, of course, balls and strikes. Foul balls, sure, but how about bang-bang plays on the bases where umpires can study five replays for 15 minutes and still not figure out the call? Indeed, it’s a slippery slope from there. “I’ve had very, very little pressure from people who want to do more,” Selig said in May. Hopefully, that’s it for a long time to come. With approval from umpires and players, odds are next season it will be used for what Selig calls “bullets” hit down the line and trapped balls in the outfield. Selig has bent some on his opposition to instant replay, instituting it for disputed home run calls a few years back. Say what you want about the baseball commissioner’s reign in office - his handling of the steroid era in particular - he’s on the right side when it comes to use of expanded instant replay in a sport that has thrived for over a century without it. They’re wrong, which means Bud Selig is right. To them, the only thing that does matter is justice is served, whether by the umpire on the field or one up in a television booth. Instant replay advocates will tell you that doesn’t matter. The only difference this time was the wrong call was made not because of human error, but because DiMuro failed to follow fundamental umpiring procedures. Wise and the New York Yankees got away with one against the Cleveland Indians, and the inevitable cry for expanded instant replay in baseball quickly followed. The fact that umpire Mike DiMuro not only blew the call but never asked to see the ball in his glove is indisputable. The ethics of his obfuscation can be debated. “I saw him looking at my glove so I just got up, put my head down and ran off the field.” “What was I supposed to do? Run back to left field?” Wise said. Never really came close, though the fans whose laps he ended up in surely appreciated the effort. If the umpires watched the replay, they would see Wise never caught the ball. For good measure, he held his glove in the air in triumph and gave Derek Jeter a glove tap as he trotted for the dugout, the third out of the inning secured. Wise sold the third base umpire just by diving into the stands while trying to catch a foul ball. Sportsmanship only goes so far when you’re wearing pinstripes and playing in Yankee Stadium. LITTLE ROCK - This wasn’t Little League, so Dewayne Wise wasn’t about to fess up.
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