Call me a Traditionalist

I may be crazy.......I dont like the designated hitter. Dont like the intentional walk with no one on base. And wasting outs is lame in almost any situation. I think that human error has played an important part of my National Pastime since the Boston Beaneaters to the Big Red Machine and on up to today. That is why this makes me a bit angry.

The proposal, approved by a 25-5 vote, was limited to boundary calls -- whether potential home runs are fair or foul, whether balls go over fences or hit the tops and bounce back, and whether fans interfere with possible homers.

According to that Bartman guy, Umpires can still tell if a fan interferes. And you rarely see the other calls overturned, despite the antics of some coaches. And the last time I saw anything like it, even if the Umps get the home run calls wrong, over 4000+ regular season games, it will even out. That is what makes the game great. It is a game of true averages. Now I'm not saying that the officials get the calls right all the time, and I have seen some pretty blatant bad calls. But removing that small, arbitrary, human element violates all that is true about the game, and society as a whole. We all make mistakes. Look at Choppers 2nd wife, the worse of the 5.

Television replays can be used for many calls in the NFL. In the NBA, they are often used to determine whether players get shots off before time expires. In the NHL, replays are applied to check whether pucks cross goal lines. In grand slam tennis, replays can be used to ascertain whether balls are in or out.

Obviously, this would only increase the length of the games. And some of those lame ass AL games already top out over 4 hours. Second, why make this like all of the rest of the major sports? The NBA is already fixed, so thats no big deal. In football, what is the percentage of successful challenges? 50/50 maybe? If the NFL jumped off of a bridge, would you follow it? And who really cares about the NHL anyway?

All anybody is interested in is getting it right," White Sox GM Ken Williams said. "It will be a lot easier and less time to get that right than some of these arguments that ensue when a call is disputed.

Isnt this part of why we love the game? Seeing some boneheaded manager who thinks he can sway the Umpire when he goes nuts, or knowing that Bobby Cox holds the all time record for ejections makes the game fun. If we do away with that, what is to prevent it from progressing to balls and strikes? See the beginning of this paragraph, as well as the first linked video. And if thats the case, why not take them out entirely....Then who would we hate all summer long? I like my baseball with Wisconsin Native Bruce Froemming being so old he cant even see the ball anymore.