I'm still a fan of replay in Major League Baseball because there are obvious calls that are missed and then correctly overturned. All too often, though, it seems that they still get it wrong. We saw two examples in the same game on Monday night between the Angels and Diamondbacks.First up, this Albert Pujols double play ended the inning. He was clearly on first base before the ball was competely nestled into Paul Goldschmidt's glove (the ball is required to be at the back of the glove in order to beat the runner
I think my favorite part is D-Backs color man Bob Brenly's despondent "I think he's safe" at the 2:12 mark, when he saw the obvious shot that the replay official in New York should have seen.No matter. The call stands!Onward for another.Closer. Less obvious, but I still feel like he was out given that Nick Ahmed slid with his lead leg so high in the air and didn't touch home plate until his backside hit it. Of course, the burden of proof required is that there has to be a clear reason to overturn the call. Why?
I've said it before (May 18, point number two) and I'll continue to say it until there's a change: There is absolutely no reason to put weight on the on-field call. Not a legitimate one, at least (I'm guessing it's something about protecting the umpires' feelings or not having too many calls overturned, lest the umpires look bad). Just have some people in the review center who aren't watching the games live, send them the reviews and tell them to make the call.Also, for the love of all that is holy, stop taking five minutes. Put some sort of time limit on it and say by this time if you can't tell, the call on the field stands -- and, again, they still don't need to know the call on the field to just say "whatever it was, leave it."C'mon.In this specific game, the Diamondbacks won 7-3, so it's not like we could blame the outcome of the game on two calls. Of course, one would have taken a run off the board and what if the Angels rally after Pujols is correctly called safe? We'll never know. That's a problem. A problem that replay was supposed to solve.Matt Snyder/CBS Sports
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