Bob Dylan said it best: “The Times, They Are a-Changin’.”
The evolution of America’s pastime continues with MLB‘s recent announcement that an agreement has been reached on instituting expanded instant replay beginning in 2014, with only a vote at the owner’s meetings needed to make it official.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the idea. Call me a dinosaur if you must, but part of baseball’s appeal—for me, at least—has been the human element of the game.
Whether the call was for or against our favorite team, it was part of the game—and we accepted it.
Expanded replay removes some of that element from the game.
While this is only the “first draft” of these rules, if you will, and tweaks will be made after next season as needed, they are far from perfect.
Let’s take a look at a few scenarios that, if-and-when they occur, will have managers, players and fans screaming to return the game to the way it was.