What do we want? REPLAY! When do we want it? NOW!

By now you've no doubt heard of the umpire who screwed up and cost that guy a perfect game. (I'm leaving out the details not because I don't care but because they don't matter here.) The aftermath was the feel good story of baseball so far this year- guy screws up, guy owns up to his screw-up, affected parties forgive him, all is well.

All that making nice somewhat diffused the furor over the mistake and diverted the attention from the obvious issue- that baseball needs more replay. The argument of purists is that mistakes are part of the game, that the role of the umpire is essential to the integrity of baseball and makes the game what it is.

That's horsecrap. There's no industry out there that accepts mistakes as part of doing business. Umpires do their best to make the right call, but sometimes make a mistake. If there is an immediate way to evaluate the umpire's judgment, why not use it? When that immediate method (replay) is already being used and broadcast to viewers in real time, it displays the flaws and calls into question whether the outcome of the contest is legitimate.

Here's one group of people who deserve replay the most- gamblers. The outcome of the game in question here (the near-perfect game) was not affected by the missed call. But no doubt there are games that either have or will have their outcomes affected by a mistake. If a wager is lost despite visible evidence that it should have been won, it becomes an unfair loss (or a contrary illegitimate win) to the gambler involved.

Tennis has been using the electronic eye system for years. It does not replace but supports the line judges and the chair umpire in their jobs. It works. I've never heard a tennis purist, commentator, or player bemoan the system. They're happy that the calls are being made consistently and fairly for all players.

The technology exists to correct these flaws. There's no reason not to institute it now, in fairness to all. Too bad it's too late for Armando Galarraga (you know, that guy.)

'roid rage

at the risk of starting a war of words in the comments section between wiley and 2white, i feel obliged to acknowledge the recent developments in the life of one alex rodriguez.

first of all, this news should come as no surprise to anyone who follows baseball. i've yet to see any of those before/after photos of a-rod, like the ones that sports outlets love to put up on bonds and clemens, but it's fair to say that a-rod now is nothing compared to the lanky shortstop that came up with the mariners. in a league where performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) were/are rampant, it's foolish to believe that after signing that almost immoral $250M contract, a-rod would have just turned his head and taken the moral high ground when presented with the temptation to cheat to succeed.

the signing of that contract, along with his antics on and off the field in NY, establish a-rod as a person with extremely low self-esteem. that low self-esteem was no doubt what drove him to feel the pressure to "'roid up", so as to avoid the ridicule that failure would bring after signing for 1/4 billion.

i give him some credit for owing up so fast. sure he's known for 5 years that there's a positive test on him, but if MLB wasn't going to leak it, why would he? his cop-out excuse seems lame, but i'm sure it's true- just make sure you interpret his feeling of "pressure" as more accurately an "immature fear of failure and loss of stature".

MLB is the real loser here. a-rod is the anchor brick in their steroid jenga tower- it all comes down now. there's no reason to believe that the 90's and early 00's were anything but a PED-fueled power trip. MLB must acknowlege that, acknowledge their outward denial, and allow all the records to stand and all the players during that period to be treated as equals. either that, or disavow the whole decade and a half and start anew.

blue (and orange) ribbon day

nothing better to brighten a miserably rainy winter day than a dose or two of baseball sunshine. got a call from erin this AM while i was at work that "the seats" had finally arrived. they were packaged with wooden planks to be mounted on for stability, which need a coat of stain and varnish before i attach them. and while there's some appeal to the character that 40 years of back sweat, stale bud light and gulden's mustard give the seats, a good scrubbing with a magic eraser is in order before they're ready for public viewing and seating.

a few hours after getting the call about the seats, i read this about a huge deal omar had just worked out adding even more reinforcements to the bullpen. it means we give up endy, which just kills me, but overall i think this deal and the signing of k-rod put the mets in striking distance of a pennant.

until i can move my seats in front of the TV to watch the now-anticipated new season, i'll just leave them where they are here in front of the computer, so i can watch this over and over, toasting endy and wishing him well.

physician, heal thyself

getting my late winter cold a few months early this year. started with just a scratchy throat last thursday, and has progressed to general misery, mostly in the head and neck. sound worse than i feel, but i have no voice. (good thing this isn't an audio blog).

thanks to the hoarseness i got a remark from just about every patient today, more than half quipping unoriginally "you need to see a doctor!" the other half thought i had been rooting too hard for the phillies. i of course told them i'd rather have tuberculosis than root for the phillies, and if they insinuated similarly again, i'd cough in their general direction.

can it really be "classic" if one team has only been around for 10 years?

as you know, i love baseball. and despite the b-list headliners of this year's fall classic, i'll be watching every game. plenty of reasons to watch, not the least of which to root, root, root against the hated phillies and their fairweather, bandwagon fans.

granted, the rays were a team that could barely attract 10K people even earlier this season and now fill their awful domed stadium with bandwagon hangers-on. but philadelphia fans are different. they come out of the woodwork every time a team of theirs gets into the playoffs and cry about how long it's been since their town has had a champion. happened all those years that the eagles were making it to championship games, and now that the phillies have a chance, it's resurgent again.

i say, if the phillie phaithful want to see a local champion, they can suck down a cheesesteak while watching the DVD of the philadelphia soul's arena football championship season from last year. let the rays join the '69 mets in the lovable-former-loser's hall of champions.

just because we didn't think of it doesn't mean it's not a great idea

baseball has often been identified as the sport most tied to its traditions and history. it's come up a lot recently with the arguments over instant replay in baseball, and tradition (or unnecessary adherence to it) has been for years a central point in the argument for or against the DH.

just this morning, i read about the US baseball team's loss to cuba in the olympics and learned of a new rule instituted to avoid limitless extra inning games. per the article:

"International baseball's new extra-innings rule was used for the first time Friday. Beginning in the 11th inning, runners go to first and second and teams can start at any point in their batting order." (this rule is quite similar to the overtime format in college football, where each team starts with the ball on the 25 yard line until the tie is broken.)

i love this rule. i love free baseball as much as the next guy, but long extra-inning games are more of a war of attrition than any kind of skilled victory. sure, managing a bullpen takes some savvy, but most games that go past 14-15 innings are beyond managerial skill and are left to chance.

having this overtime system in play would save wear and tear on bullpens and would likely see the end of position players having to pitch. it would still require plenty of managerial acumen, as saving the right guys for the overtime would come in to play. the international rule allows for only one true extra inning, which i think is a little stingy. in finkworld, the overtime would go into effect after 3 extra innings (i.e. the 13th inning). or, maybe we'd start in the 11th as they do, but do it progressively- for the 11th, you could start your lineup anywhere but have no one on base, for the 12th you'd get a guy on first and start the lineup anywhere, and the 13th 2 guys on.

"tradition" will keep this from ever happening, and the pitchers' lobby will be sure of that. (this system would not go over well with pitchers, but would be great for middle-of-the-order guys looking to increase their numbers since they'd likely get an AB in each extra inning.)

but who knows- if baseball does implement replay this year, as is widely expected, it shows that as long as fans and players put up enough of a stink, even tradition can be put aside for the good of the game.

hey chicago, what do you say?

finally recovered from a weekend jaunt to chicago, highlighted by a trip to one of baseball's most hallowed grounds, wrigley field. as a baseball fan, it was a pilgrimage that needed to be made, and no better time than this year when the cubs are hot. what an event. sat in the bleachers, which was practically like going to a frat party with a baseball game in the background. cubs scored early and often, gave up the lead, then won in extra innings. electric atmosphere. after the game, we drifted on over to one of the many local establishments right outside of the stadium, then made our way around the city on what turned out to be a beautiful night weatherwise.
(photo above is from my cell- if you've got good eyes and a good monitor, you may be able to make out the name on the readerboard at the bottom, one of chicago's favorite sons who threw out the first pitch and was the official leader of "take me out to the ballgame")

took forever to get home on sunday thanks to weather delays in the philly region (actually had to land in pittsburgh to refuel because we were circling philly for so long). dragged thru most of yesterday, but am finally back up to full steam. good thing, because only a few more days until i'm off again, this time to seattle to reconnect with my long lost family!