Instant Replay in Baseball

Within the last week, the big news out of the game of Baseball is should the MLB institute Instant Replay in Baseball games. Now, this controversy began when a Home Run was disputed on a Sunday Night game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees on May 18th, a game in which the Mets won 11-2. The Mets Carlos Beltran, hit the ball off the left field foul pole, which MLB rules states that if a ball hits the foul pole, it’s a Home Run. Instead it was called a foul ball.

Throughout the rest of the week, there had been questionable Home Run calls that could have changed the outcomes of games, and possibly the playoffs. As we see in almost every postseason race, the difference between making and missing the playoffs can be decided by just one game.

Major League Baseball is the only league in the big four that doesn’t use Instant Replay. Instant Replay is mostly known in Football, where coaches can just about challenge any ruling, twice a game. In Basketball, it is determined to see time, if the basket was three points or just two, or if the player let the ball out of his hand before time expired. In Hockey, it’s only used to see if the puck crossed the goal line, and if it did so before time ran out.

Baseball is America’s past time, which has caused many to argue that there shouldn’t be a change in how the games are to be umpired. But with all the questionable Home Run calls in the last week, it seems that Major League Baseball is one step closer to instituting Instant Replay in games where a Home Run is disputed.

This seems pretty reasonable to the average Baseball fan, and according to Steve Phillips of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, it would speed up the game. However, where would the line be drawn after instituting Instant Replay for Home Runs? Would it be later used to see if a player was safe or out on the base path, or see if a runner on second is attempting to steal the Catcher’s signals to the Pitcher? Would in a few years, Instant Replay would be used to see if a strike was really a ball, or if a ball was really a strike. In this case why even have Umpires, when you could just run the whole game by computers and the replay (Television broadcasts already do it).

One of Phillips’s colleagues on Baseball Tonight, Eric Young, thought you could just add two umpires down the foul lines in the outfield, this way the umpire crew would have a closer view of the ball. The First and Third Base Umpire usually has between 200 to 300 feet to see if the ball is a legitimate home run. By having umpires down the foul line, it would decrease that distance to 200 feet or less, making it a lot easier to see if a ball is a legitimate Home Run. They already use six umpires in the playoffs, and it seems to work there, so why not put six umpires during a regular season game.

Of course, one of the downsides of that scenario is the season is 162 games long, with 30 teams in the league. Should we really care about one Home Run in one of the 4860 games during the regular season?

One thing is for certain, it seems like Baseball will not be able to go forever, without embracing the Instant Replay technology. If not next season, than no doubt within the next three, Major League Baseball will have to crawl out of their hole of pastime baseball, and realize that we do live in a world where players and referees cheat and bet on games. A world, where athletes in almost every sport can get an edge over their opponents, by taking performance enhancing drugs such as steroids or HGH (Human Growth Hormones). And a world, where Instant Replay decides a player’s, a team’s, or a city’s fate in one of many different camera angles.

Now, the MLB has hinted about testing Instant Replay for Home Runs in the lower levels of the Minor Leagues this season. The earliest it would be initiated in the big leagues would be next season, but it seems more likely for that to occur in the 2010 season.

Avs pick Granato, again

With the departure of Head Coach Joel Quenneville earlier this month by the Colorado Avalanche, there has been a whirl of discussion on who will succeed him. Well after a couple of weeks of quiet discussion, it was announced on Thursday that Colorado has picked the same coach which preceded Quenneville, Avalanche Assistant Coach, Tony Granato.

Granato served as the Avs Head Coach from 2002 to 2004, but was demoted before the 2005 lockout by than General Manager, Pierre Lacroix, for Quenneville who had just entered the market after being fired by St. Louis.

Granato had a career winning percentage of .605 while coaching at Colorado, the second highest in franchise history.

“I’m excited about this challenge. I know this team has a great mix of youth, experience, skill and speed. I’m looking forward to this new opportunity ahead,” said Granato at a Thursday press conference at the Pepsi Center.

Granato served as an Assistant Coach for the Avalanche for the five seasons, with two before his first term as Head Coach, and three since the hiring of Quenneville.

Granato played 13 seasons in the NHL, before retiring 2001.

Current Avalanche General Manager, Francois Giguere, is extremely pleased for Granato as Head Coach, and has high hopes, especially when it comes to dealing with development of the younger players.

“Tony has gained tremendous coaching experience over the last five seasons behind the Avalanche bench. He has great knowledge of our depth chart, a strong admiration for our players and really enjoys working with the organization’s young and talented group of athletes.”

The departure of former coach, Joel Quenneville was up in the air, entering the Western Conference Semi-finals against the Detroit Red Wings, but after being swept in four games and losing 8-2 in game 4 against the teams long time rival, it seemed that Quenneville’s days were numbered.

Quenneville was a decent coach for the Avalanche, and will be most known for the current youth movement. However, his success was also filled with failure, especially when it comes to the team’s performance in the playoffs.

Since Quenneville became Head Coach, the team’s performance in the postseason has been well below expectations with the team in 2006 getting swept for the first time ever since the franchise moved in Denver in 1995. The next season the team missed its first postseason in team history, and then this month, being swept again but this time to the rival Red Wings.

After the departure of Quenneville, there were numerous rumor that the team might pick up Ron Wilson, who just days later after the firing of Quenneville, was fired from his squad, the San Jose Sharks.

But Thursday’s announcement of Tony Granato isn’t a bad one, with Granato being a fan favorite and his vast coaching experience with the team made him the prime choice for the Avalanche. This time around, the transition to Head Coach should be a lot smoother with him already having success with the team.