PHILADELPHIA — If Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd has his way, there will be no instant replay of the botched home run calls that have gone against his team four times this season.
It nearly cost the Rockies their first playoff berth since 1995 when Garrett Atkins’ seventh-inning shot in Monday’s wild-card tiebreaker was ruled a double. That ball hit the top of the wall and, according to fans in the area, hit a metal brace inches beyond the yellow line causing it to carom at a sharp angle back onto the playing field. The ground rules say that a ball off the yellow line remains in play, so the issue was whether that it was just beyond the line.
Atkins, deprived of a home run in Cincinnati on a controversial call, thought it had cleared the fence.
“If the fan had caught it, it would have been a home run,” O’Dowd said. “We could have lost because of that call.”
Standing in the front of the visiting dugout at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday, O’Dowd said he believes there will be momentum to add instant replay to determine whether a home run is fair or foul and whether a ball cleared a fence or was subject to fan interference. O’Dowd will serve as the chairman of the technology committee at the annual general managers’ meetings in November so he will have a pulpit.
“I really do think there’s been a change on how people feel about it, and there does seem to be a push even from somewhere in the commissioner’s office,” O’Dowd said. “There have been a number of calls this season.”
One came here on Sept. 10 when the Rockies lost to the Phillies. Yorvit Torrealba lost a grand slam when umpires ruled it a ground-rule double. “(If it) is ruled a grand slam then we aren’t even playing this game,” O’Dowd said. “We’d have homefield advantage.”
In the case of Torrealba, he hit a flyball that bounced off a fan’s hands just as it cleared the fence. The ball fell back onto the field. Initially first base umpire Mike DiMuro circled his finger, indicating a home run. He quickly reversed field, crossing his arms, signaling interference, leaving Torrealba at second base. The Rockies ultimately lost 6-5.
“It just sparks debate to me (about instant replay),” Hurdle said after that loss. “The most important thing is that they get the call right and I don’t think they got it right.”
The issue of implementing instant replay has been raised in the past and quickly died at the GM meetings. O’Dowd confirmed as much, but offered an explanation: those discussions were too wide-ranging. This new focus would be narrowed to home-run calls.
“We want to use it in a sort of way so it’s less obtrusive. And we want them to get the call right,” O’Dowd said.
To become a rule, it would have to be approved by the general managers, owners and finally commissioner Bud Selig. Selig has been vocal in his opposition to replay for years, not wanting to remove the human element. Bob Watson, in charge of MLB’s on-field operations, said a few weeks ago that replay would be discussed at the GM meeetings, but stressed Selig’s previous point of view not be discounted.
Hurdle has been pining for instant replay since Colorado was robbed of a clear home run on May 7 in St. Louis when Troy Tulowitzki’s ball hit the cement beyond the fence and bounced back. It was ruled a double.
Hurdle’s idea, one he declined to rehash before a national audience Tuesday in his first news conference for the National League Division Series, was in line with O’Dowd’s – with a twist. A manager could signal that he wanted a review on a difficult home-run calls, but he could not argue the ultimate result, preserving the pace of game because it would eliminate the lengthy on-field shouting matches.
“I understand tradition,” Hurdle said the day after the Torrealba debate. “But tradition can also be a vision-killer.”
