Big changes are likely coming to Major League Baseball come 2014 that will surely make progressive baseball fans happy and the old schoolers crying foul.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the league is prepared to institute instant replay to just about every facet of the game (excluding balls and strikes) while giving managers a total of three challenges per contest.
MLB is prepared to adopt radical instant replay, including manager’s challenges, but will delay any official decision until November.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 15, 2013
League owners are set to vote on these new measures during a quarterly meeting in Orlando, Florida on November 13th and 14th. Now although the vote by the owners is said to be a more of a formality at this point, 75 percent of the 30 owners around the League will have to ratify the proposal while the MLBPA and Umpires Union will also have to do the same.
The Umpires though seem to be ready to ratify the proposed expansion of instant replays according to Nightengale.
Joe West, president of the World Umpires Association, did not want to talk publicly about negotiations, but said Tuesday, “This group of umpires today are more conscientious of getting things correct than ever before. Umpires want everything they can to help them.”
As far as the challenges go, managers will have to use them wisely once again considering there’s only three but they can only be used during certain parts of the game. Managers will be allowed one challenge during the first seven innings while the remaining challenges can be used during the remainder of the game. An umpire meanwhile can call for a replay if a manager is out of challenges and the play in question is a home run.
Furthermore, the MLB offices in New York will monitor the replays by an employee with umpiring experience.
For the most part this seems like baseball finally getting with the times and allowing technology to help get the calls right. However there are some legitimate concerns that giving managers three challenges could end up slowing down the game especially in the later innings. I personally can foresee the end of a baseball game looking similar to the last minute of a basketball game when head coaches choose to expand a game by what seems like a half hour with a vast amount of timeouts. Perhaps baseball would’ve been better off limiting manager challenges to two or even one while giving umpires the discretion to call for a replay or an official in New York. If that didn’t work, consider expanding it after that.
My biggest worry is losing out on those heated yet comical manager/umpire exchanges.