The MLB instant replay system is definitely still a work in progress.
John Schuerholz, the Atlanta Braves president and the MLB replay committee chair, admitted as much, via Jayson Stark of ESPN.
“I’m not going to try to claim that we have a perfect system. But it’s better than we had before. And I believe we are greatly reducing the number of incorrect calls that were left standing in the past.”
As the league works to perfect its new system, what better resource to call upon than the NFL, which, of course, has a far more extensive history of utilizing technology to get calls right.
The NFL originally introduced replay way back in 1986. The league then scrapped the system entering the 1992 season before bringing it back in 1999 with the addition of coaches’ challenges. As the NFL’s history of replay clearly indicates, it will take a considerable amount of time before MLB gets its system completely right.
So, here are three lessons that baseball can learn from the NFL as commissioner Bud Selig and his lieutenants continue to improve the MLB replay system.