A perfect example of why MLB needs more instant replay

Paul Sancya/AP

Without much to talk about after a Cubs rainout in Pittsburgh, I decided I'd go on an angry rant about the scarcity of instant replay in baseball.

Bud Selig and MLB should have implemented a wider use of instant replay long ago. It was obvious when Jeffrey Maier turned into a right fielder; it was obvious when Fred McGriff was called out on strikes in the 1997 NLCS; and it was obvious when Matt Holliday was called safe at home in Game 163 three years ago.

And it was painfully obvious last night. The Tigers' Armando Galaragga had a perfect game going with two outs in the ninth, but umpire Jim Joyce blew a call (he admitted as much after the game) at first and it suddenly became a one-hitter. Now what could possibly or conceivably be wrong with the concept of Jim Leyland tossing a flag onto the field, the umpires conferring for a few minutes as they do now on questionable home runs, and then the crew chief coming out to the field and signalling "out" as the crowd's boos quickly become cheers. Would that be so wrong?

I'm not sure if you've noticed this, Bud, but the NFL recently incorporated a heavy dose of instant replay into their rule book, and it's pretty sweet. They even do it in tennis! (The crowd oohs and aahs as they show the replay live--it's kind of fun, actually.) Last night in the Stanley Cup finals, they reviewed an uncertain goal call and got it right. And then they did it again! It works like a freakin' charm!

I know it's not an easy task. There are annoying little things to be written like "Manager will have a red flag available, and may choose to throw the flag onto the field if he desires to challenge an umpire's ruling." That's annoying, no one wants to write that. And there are questions, like where do the runners go if a ball originally called foul ends up being fair? But they should have been working on this for years, and if they can review home runs, they can review bang-bang plays at first (although, we better clear up that whole "tie goes to the runner" myth right now), close plays at home and trapped balls in the outfield.

Amazingly, Galarraga's perfect game would have been the third already this season. Until this year, there had never been two in the same season. Joyce obviously deserves some blame for making a pretty bad call in a situation where normally, the benefit of the doubt would go to the pitcher, if anyone. But Joyce could have gotten off the hook and Galaragga could have gone into the history books if they could have just reviewed the damn thing.

Reds announcer Marty Brennaman said there has to be a way to make this situation right. I'm not sure if that's the case, but there's definitely a way to make sure it never happens again.

World Series will now be called just Series

World Baseball Classic's refusal to "just go away" forces name change

From the Wait 'til this Year Humor Vault

Sixteen countries from six continents participated in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, shaming Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig into changing the name of MLB's decisive playoff round from "World Series" to simply "Series." MLB is comprised of teams from a paltry two countries and just one continent, and only one team--the Toronto Blue Jays--plays its home games outside of the U.S. Watching the WBC propelled Selig to make a change so as to better reflect the league's pathetically provincial makeup.

"We've been living a lie," said Selig. "Everyone knows it's not really a 'World' Series, but it wasn't until the World Baseball Classic shoved its way onto the scene that it really began to sound ridiculous. I mean, c'mon, a world series between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies? That's like calling an Olympic gold medalist an Intergalactic Champion."

The first WBC was played in 2006, and while Selig says he considered changing the name at that time, he held out hope that everyone would hate the WBC, and that "maybe they would just forget to play it ever again." When the international event returned this year, featuring live TV coverage of nearly every game and an exciting extra-inning championship game featuring two Asian teams, Selig knew the jig was up.

"The World Baseball Classic is here to stay," Selig grumbled. "The fact is, MLB's championship series is really just a series of games to determine the best team located north of the equator and between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It's an Americanada series, or a Canadamerican series. But it's definitely not a world series. To make things easy, we're just going to go with 'Series.'"

When asked about the marketing challenge of promoting future winners as simply "Series Champions," Selig's eyes opened wide as he appeared to have an unpleasant epiphany, perhaps realizing that MLB's annual schedule features nearly 1,000 different series. Selig remained quiet, then stood up from the interview table and backed ever-so-slowly out of the press room.