Replay in Baseball...Good or Bad?

For everyone who knows me, they know I'm a traditionalist when it comes to baseball. Most changes make me cringe. I wasn't a fan when Major League Baseball realigned the divisions and added the Wild Card in 1994. I learned to live with it and eventually like it. With replay though, I will have to wait and see...

Serious talk of implementing replay began around June or July of this year after a week where several homerun calls were botched by umpires. At first they were going to put replay in the Arizona Fall League, Spring Training, and maybe the World Baseball Classic, to test it. As the weeks passed, talk began to install replay in July, then August of this year so they could work it out and have it in place for this year's playoffs. My question is, what's the rush?

While I'm not a huge fan of the idea of replay in baseball, I do understand the reasons why MLB wants to put it in. What I disagree with the most though is the fact they want to implement something so significant in the final month of a season. Why can't they wait until next year? That's the part I don't like and don't understand. I think it looks like a desperate act by MLB. Another concern of mine is what kind of plays will be replayed.

As of now, the only thing that will be replayed is boundary calls. Boundary calls to me mean anything around the field, including foul balls behind the plate that could be caught, or down the lines, etc. What I think MLB is focusing on the most is homerun calls and fair/foul balls around the foul pole area. Now, if MLB only has replay for these calls, I can live with it. If they start reviewing plays at first base or plays at the plate, then I will have a big problem.

There are still a lot of questions on how this will work and how it will affect the flow of the game. How will pitchers react after a prolonged delay to replay a call? As of now, there is no real time limit for a review. This could pose many problems.

The first test of replay came last night in the New York Yankees-Tampa Bay Rays game. Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, in the 9th inning, hit a long, high fly ball down the left field line that appeared to go over the foul pole and hit a catwalk in fair territory at Tropicana Field. The ball was called fair which sparked a small arguement from Rays' manager Joe Maddon. Maddon asked home plate umpire Greg Gibson to discuss the call with third base umpire Brian Runge. After a discussion by all four umpires, crew chief Charlie Reliford decided to take a look at the play on replay. After disappearing down in the tunnel where the replay equipment was installed, all the umpires emerged after 2 minutes and 15 seconds, and the call was upheld.

Some people are critizing how long it took to decide the play. I personally think 2 minutes and 15 seconds is pretty fast, for the first time. I just hope any of the replays in the future won't take much more time than that.

The jury is still out on how well replay will work. I think it won't be used as much as some people may think. The bottom line is to get the call right. I just hope that getting the call right won't take long and won't affect the game in any other way. We shall see...