BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

The battle to get it right: MLB to use more instant replay



Last August 15, it was widely reported that Major League Baseball will use instant replay extensively for the 2014 season. This after baseball’s umpires have blown a lot of calls in recent memory.

The passing of this essentially will just require the 75% of owners and the players to vote ‘yea’ for this to be implemented.

As I understand, team managers will be allowed three challenges over the course of a game. One in the first six innings and two in the last three. Should a manager not use his first challenge, it will NOT be carried over to the last three innings. However, a manager who wins a challenge will retain it.

The reviewable plays include home runs, tags, whether the ball is foul or fair or just about anything but calls in the strike zone that constitute the non-reviewable plays.

For a manager to challenge a call or blown-call, he will have to do it the old fashioned route by trotting over to the umpire.

MLB executives are optimistic that with the new technology available, it will cut short the current three minutes that it takes to review a call. And to quote Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz, “It will dramatically cut down the number of incorrect calls.”


League Vice President Tony La Russa assured fans that managers and players arguing with the umpires will be kept because it’s part of the sport’s tradition.


-------------------------------

Sports has increasingly made use of instant replay to get calls right – there’s American Football, tennis, and basketball to name a few. FIFA, the governing body for football, is also looking into this. Now if they can find a way to really integrate that into the UAAP because the calls have been horrific and if you ask me, they look like they favor a team or two.



No comments:

Post a Comment