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Baseball Trots Out Instant Replay
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Dodgers Manager Joe Torre also agreed with the limits of the policy.
"It's tough to overturn safe and out," said Torre, "then you'll get into ball and strike and then all of the sudden people have to pack more than a lunch to get here to the ballpark."
Ten months ago, general managers voted 25 to 5 to use the technology, but only in the last week did the umpires' union grant its approval. Selig, during the process, needed to be convinced that the system wouldn't elongate games. If anything, he said yesterday, the home run reviews "will be efficient in really shortening the game a little bit," because they will preempt sustained umpire discussions and arguments with managers.
Plus, few home runs will be subject to replay.
This season, 109 home runs have been hit at Nationals Park. David Vincent, a home run historian and the official scorer at Nationals Park, believes that just one -- hit by Dmitri Young on May 26 into a crevice just beyond the left-center field wall -- would have been subject to review. Young stopped at third after the hit. Umps consulted, and correctly ruled it a home run.
When Vincent spoke three weeks ago with an umpire consultant, he was told that just 16 home runs across baseball this season would have been reviewed.
"I don't think there's going to be a problem in terms of the way people perceive homers," Vincent said.
Staff writer Mark Viera contributed to this report.
