You don’t have to be a baseball purist to make this call: The half-baked, low-tech approach the major leagues take regarding instant replay is a joke.
All 34,485 spectators at the ballpark Monday thought they saw Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki hit a towering grand slam that flew higher than the setting sun on the way out of Coors Field.
“My gut really told me that it was a fair ball,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.
Too bad the umpires missed it, calling Tulo’s smash foul.
Then they walked off the field, disappeared into a tunnel behind home plate and spent more than four minutes trying to justify the call.
After much deliberation by the umps that further slowed a game with all the pace of golfer Paddy Harrington taking his pet tortoise for an evening stroll, the Final “Jeopardy!” answer from crew chief Bob Davidson was a demonstrative: Foul ball!
Are you sure, Bob?
It would be hard to make the case Tulo’s blast was nothing except a long foul ball by relying on the video of the baseball vanishing into the early evening haze that was shown repeatedly on the Rockies’ cable television outlet.
If you’re going to introduce instant replay to your sport, shouldn’t there be an obligation to use the best technology available?
There was nothing approaching a definitive angle of the moon shot launched from the bat of Tulowitzki for the umpires to overturn the original, tough call.
“It was just an awkward situation. If (the umps) come out and call it fair, I don’t know what I was supposed to do. So I was asking them: ‘Do I set the bat down and start running around the bases?’ It was just a weird situation,” said Tulowitzki, who stood anxiously near home plate, waiting for a final decision.
Of course, baseball is a sport that has long been seriously behind the technology curve, whether you’re talking reviewing questionable calls with instant replay or catching cheaters with tests for performance- enhancing drugs. While commissioner Bud Selig’s love for the game is genuine, here’s guessing he might not be able to tell the difference between a MP3 and R2D2.
The umps informed Tulo- witzki they had no good video to review.
“I don’t know if that means they need to change something, maybe get a camera on the foul pole,” Tulo said.
All is well that ends well, I guess.
The Rockies won the game, beating the Chicago Cubs 11-5. Tulowitzki finished with the most spectacular batting performance of his young professional career, collecting five hits and seven RBIs while hitting for the cycle.
But this was a game with serious implications for the playoff race in the National League.
Tennis can lean on an electronic eye that detects whether a 125 mph serve was in or out. Pro football has turned challenges of bad calls by the refs into part of the greatest sports show on earth. Even the old, fuddy-duddy NHL employs a replay official to do nothing except serve as big brother watching from afar to see if every goal should really count.
A year ago, baseball finally introduced replay, but only to review the validity of home runs. That’s absurd. Isn’t a botched call on a double play as crucial to the outcome of a tight game?
What in the name of Don Denkinger and Jeffrey Maier is going on here?
The least baseball can do is do its best to give umpires the best possible information to judge disputed home runs. How hard could it be to install cameras atop the foul poles of every ballpark in the major leagues?
Hey, I am far from a baseball purist. While the next gadget Steve Jobs dreams up is sure to be on my Christmas list, I’m not a techno geek advocating robots should replace umpires. It’s only a game. Human error is part of what makes sports such compelling drama.
“For me, whatever the umpire says, I think should go. But that’s just because I’m old school,” Tulowitzki said.
No argument here.
All we’re asking is: If baseball is going to employ instant replay, at least try to do it right.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
