A week ago, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game on the admittedly blown call of an umpire. Soon after, MLB commissioner Bud Selig decided not to overturn that blown call which would have awarded Galarraga a perfect game, an ultra rare feat accomplished only 20 times in over 100 years of pro baseball. Some people disagree with Selig’s reluctance to change the on-the-field call. But he refrained from overturning the call not because it may have opened up a can of worms regarding blown calls in the past (having to retroactively fix blown calls from previous games). Rather, the can of worms that Selig is trying to trying to side step is the setting of a precedent where the commissioner’s discretion after the fact can trump an umpire’s in-game call.
And despite the fact that every person with eyes and half a brain knows the call was incorrect, Selig doesn’t want to set such a sweeping precedent regarding his own power because baseball fans of all 30 teams will consequently be Monday-morning-quarterbacking after every single questionable call. For example, they’ll DVR MLB games and put every pitch and play under the microscope, raising suspicions about umpires’ miscalling balls and strikes, pitchers’ balking, pitchers’ cleats improperly coming off the rubber during a pitch, batters’ setting up outside the confines of the batters box, or runners beating out the throw to first.
Then, after video evidence helps turn these suspicions into what we can see as legitimately blown calls, the commish is bound to get overrun with petitions to overturn them. Because if the commissioner can review and overturn one play then why not another? This is a crazy big can of worms that Selig wants no part of because he”ll get into some very troubling waters with no solutions.
For instance, imagine if the controversy regarding this botched call was not grounded solely in one pitcher being deprived of baseball immortality. But instead, imagine that much more was at stake. What if this had been been a World Series clinching game of which the winner and loser were decided by a ump’s blown call. Bud Selig would have to overturn an on the field call and essentially take away one team’s championship and award it to the other team. All plays and games would be subject to review by the commissioner under this precedent. And the commish doesn’t want to be in the uncomfortable hot seat of making pivotal decisions that decide the outcomes of games, especially after the games have already been played.
There are less contrived instances where the commissioner will be under enormous public pressure to overturn, for example, a blown call that declared a runner out at first base – but instead of happening in the 9th inning, it happened in the 5th inning. You can’t possibly entertain the “what if” scenario where one altered event in the middle of the game would affect the rest of the game thereafter. It would be impractical and ridiculous to say, “Batter A was actually safe at first base, thus Batter B should have had an opportunity to bat in that 5th inning. So therefore that team should be given another out at the end of the game. And now we should have those two teams meet up again to play that last deserved out of the game.” The commissioner of baseball wants no part in these hypos.
Even if you support in-game review/instant replay, fans don’t want to watch umps reviewing plays. That’s the tug of war between the MLB’s current policies limiting in-game review and what its policies should be. There’s the real threat of ruining the already shaky entertainment value of a sport that has constantly been criticized for being too boring and moving too slowly. In a game that can only progress on a pitch-to-pitch basis, further snailing that already fragilely slow pace will drive TV ratings down. It’s in the best interests of baseball and its popularity to have the umps continue to call games as they do.
So, it’s not as black and white as just getting calls right. If the MLB wants to keep up with soccer (the most popular sport in the world), football (the number one sport in the US), and basketball which will soon challenge football for that top spot as LeBron James reshapes the landscape of basketball as the 21th century Michael Jordan, the last thing the commissioner should do is promote procedures that slow down an already slow game. Because, meanwhile, MMA’s popularity is on a steep rise as a younger generation of viewers seeks more instant gratification and excitement from its sports – and what’s more instantly gratifying and exciting than barbaric hand-to-hand combat. Furthermore, the MLB has to compete with X-Games sports that are much more accessible than baseball is to a generation of young athletes and sports enthusiasts. Take skateboarding or BMX – it’s so easy for a kid to get on his/her board/bike and immediately enjoy him/herself on a sidewalk outside of a 7-Eleven. But with baseball, you literally must organize an event to gather 17 of your friends together who all own baseball gloves and bats. Then you all need to meet at a baseball diamond.
There must be a convincing reason for Bud Selig’s refusal to overturn that call in the face of such intense public outcry for him to do just the opposite. In the final analysis, it was a business decision made in the name of the best interests of baseball. But more immediately, Selig doesn’t want to be in a position to have to decide what happens in games. And ultimately, his decision stems from his aim to keep his product relevant in a changing sporting environment that disfavors the slow pace and inaccessibility of baseball.
