The Wrong Highlights Make Up the 2009 MLB Postseason

The 2009 Major League Baseball playoffs are filled with the highs and lows that every year’s postseason is filled with. This year, however, the lows come from not just the players, but unfortunately, the umpires.

Most people would agree that St. Louis Cardinals’ Outfielder Matt Holliday’s error in Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers will live on forever with the likes of Bill Buckner. What else will live on is the call by Left Field Umpire Phil Cuzzi in the American League Division Series between the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees.

On a ball hit down the left field line, Cuzzi called a ball foul that not only bounced in fair territory, but it also hit New York Yankees’ Left Fielder Melky Cabrera’s glove while the player was in fair territory, automatically making it a fair ball.

Obviously, this has led to much debate about whether umpires are even necessary. With the technology the way it is today, could computers handle all the calls that humans make in a routine baseball game?

The answer is a decisive no. While basically every play in baseball is a judgment call that falls into the hands of the umpires, there are certain situations in which computers would fall short of human capabilities.

There are calls that must be made by umpires that are more judgment calls than others. While ball and strike, safe and out, and foul and fair are pretty routine calls, what happens when decisive calls such as the Infield Fly Rule, a balk, or whether a ball is trapped or not needs to be called?

This is where an expansion of the replay system is needed. In the past season and a half, we have seen replay correct or confirm home run calls, ensuring that the umpires had the right call. It is time to expand replay in baseball to cover any run-scoring situations.

This replay system would have the ability to decide whether runs should be counted. This way, those safe/out calls at the plate, among others, are eligible to be reviewed should a replay official deem it necessary to take a look at the play.

With this system, no longer can a call in the seventh inning, that seemingly has no relevance with a safe call when the runner was obviously out, is double-checked to ensure the correct call was made.

At the same time, the replay system could not be overused in looking at every single disputed call. Baseball games would cross into four hours in length if every safe/out call or balls and strikes were in question. It could only be used to make sure that the score is what it should be in the end.

Now do not get me wrong, I thought using replay in baseball when they came up with it was a bad idea, taking away from what made baseball unique. After the success of it though, I am a believer that it will help baseball.

By the way, I understand why they have the outfield umpires during the postseason, but we made it through the regular season without them, so why do we need them now?

The reason…to get a call wrong that a third base or first base umpire would have made correctly nine out of ten games in the regular season.