How Baseball Can Save Itself On Controversial Plays Without Replay

After the Oakland A's defeated the Minnesota Twins 14-13 on Monday night, there was a renewed call for expanding instant replay after a blown call ended the game. Currently replay is only used for homerun calls.  

The ruling can either be that, a fan reached over and touched the ball before it went out of the ballpark or if the ball went fair or foul, there's no replay for close calls at any of the four bases.

Recently there was an article on bleacherreport by Joseph Morgan titled "Call for Action: MLb Needs To Either Expand Instant Replay or Ditch it Completely"

One of the arguments against replay is by the baseball purists who believe that adding replay to the game of baseball takes away from the charm of baseball and that part of the game is human error.

Another argument is the fact that replay would add to the length of games that are already nearly three hours long.

I disagree with the notion that adding replay takes away the human error aspect of the game because there's no way that replay will be expanded to take a look at balls and strikes.

I would like to believe that baseball will expand the replay to determine close plays at any of the four bases, but if it isn't expanded then that's perfectly fine too.

Yet, when there are calls made like the one in the Twins' game involving a horrendous call, I think that's when these debates start coming out. Should baseball expand the replay and where do they cross the line when to use replay and when not too?

John Kruk the other day on ESPN suggested that replay can be used on anything, but can be used once per game. Regardless of what kind of call homerun, check swing, foul ball, etc.

If baseball is to put in replay it should be used whenever necessary. For example I was watching the Seattle Mariners vs Detroit Tigers replay the other day, when Jim Leyland disputed a foul ball. He thought that the ball was fair. The umpires huddled together and had a conference with each other and decided to not use replay because the play wasn't really that close. The ruling was correct it was a foul ball.

Meaning that if a manager comes in asking for replay and the play isn't really that close they can determine with the other umpires if the play should be reviewed or not. Yes, it may add a little bit more time to the games, but as a fan I would rather see the call be correct rather than the call being wrong.

I'm on the belief that in order for baseball to keep replay on just homerun calls then the umpires are going to have to start working together better. For example let's take a look at the Michael Cuddyer play more closely.

Cuddyer was on second base at the time. Michael Wuertz was the catcher for the Oakland A's. Wuertz throws a slider in the dirt that Suzuki cannot find until Cuddyer is heading towards the plate.

Suzuki finds the ball picks it up and throws it to Wuertz, but Wuertz was a little slow in making the tag and Cuddyer had slid in safetly, but since the umpire at home wasn't in good position he could not see the fact that Cuddyer had slid in safely before the tag.

Cuddyer of course immediately jumped up after sliding and startd to argue, the Twins batter in the on deck circle argued, and Ron Gardenhire also came out, but to no avail. The A's had already ran out of the dugout to celebrate the victory.

Here's how you change the way that baseball umpires call plays. If an umpire is not sure of what to call he should be able to call on the rest of his umpiring crew to get the call right especially if one of them had the better angle on the play.

Here's a perfect example of how it would work. Back on June 16th, the A's were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers had two men on with no outs. James Loney was up at the plate.

Adam Kennedy the A's second basemen picked up the groundball by Loney and stepped on second for the first out and threw back to first basemen Jason Giambi, but the throw had pulled Giambi off the base, but Giambi was able to make the tag on Loney's hip.

The first base umpire on the play ruled that Loney was safe. Bob Geren came out of the dugout very quickly and argued his point. So, the first base umpire called the rest of the umpires over to see if any other of them had a better view of the play. 

After the conference which took all about 20 seconds the call was overruled and Loney was ruled out, which was the correct call.

So, does baseball need to expand replay?

Depends on who you ask. If baseball wants to keep replay where it is with just having homerun calls being ruled on replay then fine, but if it really wants to get rid of the argument about expansion it is time for umpires to work together more to make sure the call is right.

I'm going to also say if the Twins had the umpire at home ask for help on the play, you may have seen a different outcome on the call. I would bet that the second base umpire would have had the best view although from further away, but he would have been able to see Cuddyer crossing the plate before the tag was even put down.

I've shown two examples where the call was made one was a foul ball that was ruled correctly and did not need replay and the other example was on a safe call that got overturned and each of those plays involved the umpires huddling to together to make sure the correct call was made.

That is what baseball needs to do to get rid of the argument of expanding replay. Umpires need to work together more especially if the one who needs to make the call doesn't have the best angle for it because there maybe another umpire with a better view of the play.