Intsantly Relpaying Baseball

Last night (May 18Th) on ESPN Sunday night baseball, the New York Mets and New York Yankees played the last of their two-game Subway Series at Yankee Stadium. The Mets won the first of the two games on Saturday, behind a solid performance from their ace pitcher, Johan Santana and big HR's from Jose Reyes and David Wright. The Mets had to face the Yankees only star this season so far, pitcher Chen-Ming Wang. He has a 6-1 record this season and really is the only bright spot for the Yankees. The Mets faced the challenge and performed the way all Mets fans thought they would from day one. In the fourth inning of the game, the mets were leading 3-0 after Moises Alou hit a 2-RBI single to right field with one out, setting up a great situation for the next batter, Carlos Delgado. Delgado came up to bat with Alou on first base and Ryan Church on third base. Delgado hit a slicing fly ball to the left field corner of the stadium, the ball made its way over the wall and appeared to stay fair, resulting in a big three-run home run for Delgado. The umpire working the third base line, Mike Reilly, initially called it fair and signaled it a home run. That would have opened the game up for the Mets and would have given them a 6-0 lead. Then what happened next was something commissioner Bud Selig should be wary of. The Yankees short stop, Derek Jeter challenged the call, saying the ball was foul, prompting the officials to have a conference on the field. The home plate umpire, Bob Davidson, eventually overruled the call and said it was a foul ball. Mets bench coach, Jerry Manuel and head coach, Willie Randolph began arguing the call, knowing Davidson blew the call. Manuel, usually a soft spoken guy, was livid, screaming in defense of the initial home run call which was evidently the right call. Davidson ejected Manuel from the game and threatened Randolph he was next if he didn't stop arguing. What makes this whole situation frustrating, is that viewers like myself, watching the game at home got the opportunity to watch the replay over and over again. Getting to see the ball hit almost two feet fair inside the foul line and then seeing the umpire at home plate who is an older man and is almost 320 feet away decide it was foul was horrible. Just to make sure Mets fans had the right to be mad, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, the ESPN Sunday night baseball commentators were stunned to see the umpires call this foul and did not stop talking about the incident for the rest of the game, making the case for Instant Replay. Viewers at home and Joe and Jon had the advantage of replay. But, why is this an advantage? Its not like instant replay is this amazing technological endeavor that only NASA can afford to have. Football, basketball and hockey all have inserted instant replay into their mainstream decision making and it has worked in favor of fairness for all teams involved. Baseball and Bud Selig are making it seem like Replay is something that will taint the "purity" of baseball and it's history. I thought steroids, HGH, free spending and astronomical ticket prices already did that? If a beer and a hot dog can cost $15, why can't baseball have instant replay? Last night, fortunately for the Mets, the botched call didn't affect the outcome of the game because the Mets creamed the Yankees and didn't even need the 3 runs missing from the Delgado foul ball home run. Other times, teams, including the Mets, have been on the other side of botched calls. For example, the Mets' Carlos Beltran hit a shot to left center during the teams third game of the season in Miami, it looked like a home run and was called that initially, but after the umpires conference, they overruled and said it was a double. That did affect the outcome of the game. I think Bud Selig should implement some sort of replay for baseball, especially with the playoffs coming in September and the umpires' calls being the last word in decision making. There should be one other tool available to back up the umpires and make sure they don't have to give statements like Bob Davidson had to do this morning. "I (expletive) it up. I'm the one who thought it was a (expletive) foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I'm the one who (expletive) it up so you can put that in your paper," Davidson said. "Bolts and nuts, I (expletive) up. You've just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do."