Big Picture First in Perfect Game Controversy

This is a great article. Agree with everything

GOING FORWARD, we must do better. The empire suffers nothing and indeed gains in individual abusing powers if nothig is done. I do not watch or give any one individual this kind of abusing power over others.

GOING FORWARD, a system to overturn injust and abusing calls at the time of the injustice must be in place where the technology and consensus interest of everyone is seen warrant to do so. It needs to change now, and we are capable of some consensus changes to ths game for the better.

I do have to say that there are parts of the “human element” that I like. It’s fun, at least for me, to be screaming at the TV screen or from the stands about how horrible the umps are in any given game. While I’m not adverse to the use of instant replay in a game to determine calls (and it should have been used in the Yankees/Twins games) the problem that you run into is the public masses screaming that the games are too long even now. Reporters, broadcasters, even umpires (see Joe West) comment on the length of games. Should instant replay be used, yes, but it has to be used in a way that doesn’t impact the flow of the game in general. What I would like to see more so than mass instant replay is a system like what exists in the NFL where the managers have a set number of challenges and the umpires cannot just bark away the challenge.

I will also say that I think there is an underlying problem that has to do with the umpires and their apparent need to see themselves on TV. In my mind I’ve seen too many times where the umpires have either stuck to their original call, or thrown a manager/player out instead of attempting to get the correct call. When the umpires spend more time either promoting a CD they made (see Joe West again [really don’t like that guy]), or in a post-game press conference to defend their calls/actions during a game there is something seriously wrong with the overall system. Like in every other sport, basketball, football, hockey, etc. the game is better when you don’t notice the officials.

The “perfect game that never was” will end up being a lot better known than a random game. So perhaps this was of service to baseball, if it ends up getting a better sport as a result.

There’s no point clinging to traditions that don’t make sense or result in unfair results. The important thing is to get the call right and let justice be served.

There is actually precedent for this before, as in the past commissioners have made all sorts of rulings like this, and in fact, they even took away two perfect games from pitchers.

Baseball’s rules weren’t brought down off the mount by Moses. They’re a living thing that have been constantly in flux throughout the history of the game. Nothing is lost by giving this kid what he earned – a perfect game. Bill James had a great article about this in The New Historical Abstract – and he says basically, that over the last few decades there has been a growing perception that baseball’s rules are “a perfect machine.” That they have always been what they are now and an always will be. The rules have constantly changed throughout the history of our game. He further points out that if some of this BS stuff was going on back in the 1860’s or 1890’s or whatnot, the founding fathers of the game or the commissioners would have just changed the rules. Same thing if an automated strike zone was possible. If it was available Id wager they all would have signed up in a second. For some reason we cling to the rules now as sacrosanct. There is also a perception that it cheapens the history of the game when we change the rules. Nope. Look at college basketball – do we feel the history is irrelevant or devalued? They used to play without a shot clock, the three point line changes, the lane changes, the number of fouls changes – hell, Michael Jordan played his college ball when they were still playing that four corners crap. Bottom line, if we can change a rule in baseball that makes the game better and more enjoyable than we should do it.

We definitely do need instant replay – since, again, goal #1 has to be getting the calls right and making it an even playing field. We also need much stricter regulation of umps, including rotating guys out and sending them to training when they have a bad stretch. Even the NBA does this – and they’re not exactly a model for good officiating. Most importantly we need to weed out the umps who are confrontational. Gibson, Hernandez, Bucknor, Eddings, West etc… Those guys bother me way more than Joyce, who blew a call, took his beating on the field and manned up and admitted it afterwards. These umps who antagonize people are the ones who need to be retrained or fired. There’s no place for that crap in the game. I sympathize entirely with them that their job is a hard one fraught with all sorts of BS and players arguing with them all game, even if they’re calling the game 100% correctly. There is no place for antagonizing players, period. Has to stop.

Add instant replay so this type of travesty never occurs again.

MLB already has reply for home runs, like the NFL does inside of 2 minutes.
Give each dugout 1 replay election per game.

That’s not a terrible idea.

You can’t change what’s in the past, if you do that for this game, a regular season game of fractional importance – you are opening a very dangerous door.

And it’s not like baseball is a fast paced game where you are crushing momentum by looking at a replay – I can by that in the NFL, NBA & NHL – but in MLB? I mean part of me sees this as a tremendous advertising opportunity for Bud – he should be all over this.

In 2010, umpires can no longer handle the game. They grandstand in front of the cameras trying to make themselves the stars of the game, and hopelessly screw up routine calls. They decide games based on their personal whims like the Rays/Jays mess 2 nights ago, and (Joyce aside) arrogantly refuse to admit wrongdoing.

Replace them in the long-term, monitor them with replay in the short-term.

In a perfect world, Bud would give the kid the perfecto and still add instant replay, but that probably won’t happen, and given the choice of one of two, I would rather we get replay.

A few hours ago Bud released a statement saying he was going to at least “look into” the idea of expanding replay, so hopefully this gets the ball rolling and nobody has to get shafted like this again.

But I have to say, I think the whole “dangerous precedent” idea is bunk. It’s not like if you change this one call, you have to go back and change every other known blown call, or future blown call. This is a play that if called right, the game would have ended, so there is no possibility of a change in outcome.

But the crux of the whole situation is, the umpires aren’t superhuman, so let’s give them the best possible tools to get the calls right so that we can have the fairest game possible.

When you have an error that’s easily fixed, FIX IT!

The world will not collapse on itself because of the admission that the system of rules is not completely comprehensive and able to predict all possible eventualities.