I just knew it was coming to this.
If the powers that be keep taking the human element out of games, eventually outcomes will be determined by robots sitting at consoles.
Oh that’s right our youngsters already do that to a high degree of efficiency.
But I am lamenting studies that are graphing baseball balls and strikes which would enable the plate umpire to “always get it right.”
Much to my pleasure, the ump – in line with the establishment of his strike zone that particular night – already gets it right at a high percentage.
Take the game out of the hands of the plate umpire is blasphemy as far as I’m concerned.
Bad enough that baseball took away protection of the plate by the catcher, thus removing one of the more exciting plays in the game – sound like an old catcher.
As far as I’m concerned, even though I understand the argument that you want to get calls right, the amount of time replay takes to resolve is spoiling games.
And if you take it to the baseball diamond I may be forced to only watch 140 Mariner games into the wee hours of the night. It isn’t so much about the decisions – in fact it has little to do with the determined decision – it’s the delay in determining the outcome.
Look for example at professional football. Studies are trying to determine why its popularity is decreasing and I could argue the length of time for replays extending the length of the game just might be one of the reasons.
that of course and the price of the ticket, the expansion of the number of games one can watch on somebody’s big screen and the number of nights games are contested.
And I know there are certain plays that can and cannot be reviewed but I’m not so sure the average fan knows what the parameters are especially say in the last two minutes when it seems the rules change.
At least football seems to bring quicker replay decisions than say college basketball where I have more first-hand observation.
Here’s how it goes: Two of the game officials, including the referee go courtside, look into the monitor and hopefully reach a consensus but then they summon the third official who also has to take a look.
And sometimes that doesn’t happen easily.
Then it’s a half court confab where the trio make the call, then calling both head coaches to center court for an explanation, all the time with the teams taking advantage of an unofficial time out.
It just flat takes too long. I think in most cases what you see initially probably enables one to make the correct call quickly and looking at it further just confuses the issue.
Then there’s the case of flagrant calls which carry the utmost of importance because of the expulsion factor.
Some are obvious but others seem to come back to officials determining intent and for the life of me I’m not sure how officials are mind readers.
It’s about how long replay extends games more than spending so much time getting it right which imo they do most of the time
Just sayin’
