Imagine this highly improbable, utterly delightful finish to the NHL season: The Philadelphia Flyers end a 35-year title drought by beating the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The series turns in Game 6 when an apparent overtime goal by Patrick Kane is disallowed . . .
It’s easy to understand why professional athletes, managers and coaches tend to wax philosophically about the “human element” in their respective sports. After all, without Don Denkinger’s blown call, the 1985 World Series would have merely been about two teams from the Midwest playing baseball. Without that specter of uncertainty, would anyone, anywhere, have any idea what a reference to “The Immaculate Reception” meant?
Perhaps, without the technology available last week in Philadelphia, the Flyers, who didn’t even qualify for the playoffs until the final day of the regular season, then overcame a 3-0 Game 7 deficit — this after trailing the series 3-0 — just to reach the conference finals, would have also become part of sports lore.
But when the play was reviewed, Kane’s shot was ruled a goal — and one of the most bizarre title celebrations ever could commence. It was also the latest example of the impact instant replay has had on the athletic landscape. The NHL began using it in 1991, five years after the NFL. The NBA came on board in 2002; this year, a decision to expand replay to cover out of bounds calls has played a big role in the NBA Finals.
In 2007, there were a series of missed calls — a number of which involved the Rockies during their magical pennant chase. The following year, Major League Baseball adopted instant replay for “boundary calls,” such as whether a potential home run was fair or foul, or if there was fan interference on a long ball.
At the time, commissioner Bud Selig called it “an adjustment,” and argued that “the game has prospered for well over a century now doing things the way we did it.”
And that’s the story Selig is sticking to — even after the controversy surrounding Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, who lost a perfect game after a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce.
Major League Baseball doesn’t have a problem, Selig said before last week’s player draft, adding that “most baseball people are really against instant replay.”
That being said, the commissioner allowed that his 14-member committee for on-field issues would look into the issue. But if the group, which includes managers, general managers and even political columnist George Will, does ask around, perhaps they’ll discover things aren’t quite as cut-and-dried as Selig believes.
“It is 2010; I think it would be really cool,” Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi said. “In a game, things happen in a split second, but you can hear the fans instantly boo a call. And there’s five replays of it right away — you can ask any ump — they already know they missed the call before the next pitch even comes.”
Under the right circumstances, for Giambi, instant replay could serve as another integral part of game management.
“Let’s say you got one challenge a game; then it almost becomes like using a pinch hitter or making a pitching change,” Giambi said. “It becomes part of the strategy — do you use it now, or do you save it for later? What if (Tigers manager) Jim Leyland had used his earlier in Galarraga’s game? That would have been interesting.”
“Try to make it right”
Broncos coach Josh McDaniels says trying to determine when to use one of his two challenges can indeed become part of managing an NFL game, that if “your chances look bleak early, then you may not want to throw it out there because of the ramifications it could have on you later.”
Last season McDaniels threw his challenge flag 12 times in 16 games, second only to Baltimore (13) in the AFC. The plays he questioned were overturned on only three occasions; however, that 25 percent success rate wasn’t as bad as it may appear, especially compared with Seattle (0-for-7), Kansas City (1-for-8) or New England (1-for-7).
While McDaniels said he hopes he would be more successful with his challenges, the important thing is being able to use them.
“I just want an opportunity to have the game called and played the way that it should be,” he said. “If there’s a mistake made, let’s not worry about that necessarily, let’s just try to make it right so that the right team wins.”
During the 2009 season there were 283 challenges made by NFL coaches. Even if you throw in the 124 plays in the final two minutes of either half that were reviewed in the officials’ booth, it still comes out to less than one per game. In that sense, McDaniels says the NFL has the best of both worlds, where the pace of play isn’t compromised and, more often than not, the right call is made.
“I’ve never been a part of a long, long, long stoppage that didn’t help us get the game right,” he said. “Usually, the longer it goes, the more it’s needed to get the game right and the more critical the play is.
“Like the two-point play in the Super Bowl (when officials eventually ruled Lance Moore made a catch, giving the eventual champion Saints a seven-point, fourth-quarter lead); that was a really critical play and they needed to get it right and they did.”
Tracy sees replay’s role
Rockies manager Jim Tracy, like Selig, is a fan of the human element inherent in baseball, saying that without it, “you’re distorting the picture of some of the beauty of this game.” But an equally important part of it is the idea that the team that pitches the best and hits the best and fields the best over nine innings should come out on top, as opposed to losing because of a missed call.
So in those circumstances, he says there is room for some game enhancement.
“You can’t just stop a game and start reviewing plays and leaving one or the other team’s starting pitcher or relief pitcher standing on the mound for how long for this break in the action, and then start up again,” Tracy said, “but you don’t want a game decided by a decision that everybody in the ballpark knows is incorrect and as result, the team that’s supposed to win is going to lose.
“So if there’s a situation in the course of a game where there’s say, for lack of a better term, a red flag, where you can say, ‘Hey, look, we think this is very, very wrong — let’s get some clarification on this.’ That’s where instant replay can come in.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
