I self-edit, which can be a good thing… and a bad one.
Such are the benefits of running one’s own website. Maintaining one’s own viral venue with no producers, editors or censors in sight means I am allowed to speak my mind freely. I answer only to you: the reader… and of course, my own conscience.
There are also drawbacks to self-editing. I know one punctuation error, misspelled word or incoherent concept will lose your attention. (You guys still there?)
Fortunately, I was blessed with the ability to spell properly, but just like everyone on the planet who’s ever used a word processor, I still rely on Word’s built-in spell check to correct mistakes when they happen. After all, there’s always a chance of a spastic forefinger hitting the ‘Y’ instead of the “T.’
Nobody complained about the invention of spell-check. Who the hell does this computer think it is to correct MY spelling?!? We welcomed it. Without it, we’d remain a nation of misspellitude. Spell check is the perfect example of what technology can do for us. Why put out a blemished product when, with little inconvenience, we have the ability to un-blemish? It’s why there are erasers on pencils.
So, I ask you, what’s wrong with a little spell check in Major League Baseball to right the wrongs and correct correctable mistakes? Just like how we look back and wonder how we ever got along without spell check, hopefully, with the proper implementation of instant replay, we’ll look back and wonder how we ever survived without it.
I’m not here to get on my soapbox and proclaim the need for instant replay across the board. Nor am I suggesting that entire seasons have been affected by a missed call or two. But someone has to offset the purists. So why not me?
When Major League umpires are calling for instant replay to help them out, that should give us some indication of the internal need to make things right. The last thing any professional, in any field, wants is to make an error in judgment. The days of Wite-Out are over, gentlemen. Poor Jim Joyce probably still has nightmares about that June night where he single-handedly altered baseball’s record book by calling the final out safe, and robbing Armando Galarraga of a perfect game.
I don’t see what we’re so afraid of. Umpires aren’t suddenly going to be replaced with robots. Replay exists simply to ensure a game is called properly. What’s wrong with that and why are so many still against it? A ball is either foul or fair. A runner is either safe or out. There is no gray area.
By and large, the NFL has improved its product by implementing instant replay. Missed calls are corrected and robots have not yet taken over.
Just like when I misspell a word, my reader is turned off, when a call is blown in a baseball game, the fan is turned off. The errors discredit us both. Imagine a utopia where we are all given the opportunity to erase our past mistakes. How much would some of us pay for that luxury?
Umpires aren’t perfect. Nobody is. There’s nothing wrong with admitting our mistakes and there’s nothing wrong with change.
Major League Baseball needs no longer live in the past. Franchises play in billion dollar stadiums. It’s time Major League Baseball modernize as well.
Or we can all go on misspelling and take our chances.
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Awe… Come on Chris… How else will MLB be able to control the games (who wins)? Case in point… How big is the Pittsburgh television market? Does MLB want the Pirates in the playoffs? MLB’s opportunity knocked late in the night and Pittsburgh got jobbed… (I love these conspiracy theories!)
Now just leave the Rays and Giants alone and I’ll be happy!
Chris
It’s the Natiunals ! LOL,LOL,LOL !!! Who cares ?
Is it me but how can Lew Wolff ( team’s owner)of the A’s be critical of Frank McCourt and his business dealings with the Dodgers . Pardon me for saying this but isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black ? How can that dumb moron (Wolff) be critical of McCourt when his ambitions as it relates to the A’s borders on being insidious and venial at best . He has never been ambitious about winning much less being an alleged businessman. We’re told that Wolff made his millions in commercial and residential real estate . Well that now explains a lot especially within the state of California in particular !
tophatal ………………
Another good argument for instant replay in baseball. ” One Day the Devil challenged the Lord to a baseball game.
Smiling the Lord proclaimed, “You don’t have a chance, I have Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and all the greatest players up here”.
“Yes”, snickered the devil, “but I have all the umpires.”
Chris
If at all interested ?
Be Scared, Be Very Scared …. We’re Not Alone …….The NFL Is Now Very Much Alive And Kicking
Oh by the way Rick Scott will be working in a doughnut shop in the Bay area today . It’s part of his ” get back to work “ morale boosting idea ? . The governor getting people back to work ? Oh please since his induction he’s done more to increase unemployment in the state than anyone could’ve imagined .
tophatal …………
You already know my opinion on instant replay. If we want to go back and fix mistakes, let’s go all the way and not give Tampa a baseball team…
I feel like of the millions of calls they make each year they make 99.9% of them correctly. Even with that Pittsburgh play int the 19th inning, would they even have overturned that play? I think it might work for some parts of baseball, but in the end I don’t see too many bad calls…
JW
The Rays were a mistake ? Here’s me thinking that Selig felt that baseball …. can work in the state of Florida ! LOL,LOL,LOL !!!
tophatal ….
A big part of the problem JW is that they gave St. Petersburg a team not Tampa. And baseball has worked in Florida for a hundred years.
Chris,
Knowing what we now know of Armando Galaraga, I think JJoyce made the right call. To have this AH’s name inscribed in that brick building in farmland NY state would be an insult to steroid users. A bad teamate and a disruptive personality makes be wonder why he didn’t go ballistic on Joyce immediately following the ‘call’.
Nice of you guys to continue the conversation whilst the working man works.
Now… my responses.
Dwin…
C’mon, man. You’re not actually suggesting conspiracy theory, are you?
If anything, I’d think the Pirates are this year’s feelgood story in Major League Baseball.
If there was a conspiracy, it would be to get the Pirates INTO the playoffs. Theirs is a proud, winning franchise that nobody expected to amount to anything.
I think these calls boil down to errors in judgment.
Just think of the drama. A final call made. A manager challenges. We wait on a call from the booth. The crowd rejoices on a call overturned.
Sounds like a good way to end a ballgame to me.
Al…
McCourt’s an easy target these days.
I’m surprised the Maloof brothers haven’t made a play yet.
Aer’s been reading a little too much Dub lately, suggesting that umpires are purely evil, or at least ill-equipped.
I don’t hate on the umps. We all make mistakes.
We just sometimes, as I suggested in the post, need erasers.
Al…
I’ll leave the Rick Scott alone for the time being but I will swing by to check out your latest.
C’mon now, Dub.
The market deserved a team and it’s done its damn best to compete.
Considering they were thrown in the AL East, I’d say they’ve done fairly well going against the you-know-who’s.
Chap…
It’s probably closer to 96 or 97%, probably less than that if you include balls and strikes.
Nobody here yet has talked about when, or even if, we should implement instant replay.
Tighten up, people.
Yes or no!
Is MLB too proud to bring in a system that another league (the NFL) has already implemented?
Give a manager two challenge flags, not to be called on balls and strikes, but on safe/out or fair/foul calls and let’s be done with it.
Al…
Let’s keep in mind the Marlins have won two World Series.
Aer…
As you well know from being a resident of the area for some time now, Tampa Bay had been clamoring for a team since the 80s.
First it was the Giants, then the Mariners, then the White Sox.
They built that stadium, I guess to offset the Bucs on the other side of the water.
Clearly the area can’t support that team.
I think if done right, that team could thrive on the other side of the bay.
But… they still won’t be able to spend $200 mil a year no matter where they build that stadium, and I think that’s still in the back of everyone’s minds.
RB…
What does Galarraga’s personality have anything to do with Joyce clearly getting that call wrong?
Chris
The Marlins may well have won two World Series but what has been done by their respective owners in both cases after those wins ? I rest my case !
The Maloofs haven’t got two brass farthings to rub together ! Look at the mess with regard to the Kings ? They’re hemorrhaging money as an operation . There’s nothing better than the family would like to relocate the organization to the state of Nevada or to a community more amenable to building them a new venue. The city of Sacramento hasn’t the means or money and that’s in spite of the goodwill of the business community and that of its mayor Kevin Johnson (former NBA player).
I don’t mind honest Lew’ Wolff being critical ___ I mean being hypocritical given his lack of propensity for wanting success for the A’s . He’d rather continue to receive the money the organization receives courtesy of Selig’s asinine luxury tax revenue scheme .
I see A Rod is embroiled in more trouble again ? This time it’s for being involved in high stakes poker games as well as possibly gambling on a slew of sporting events .
Bubba Smith ex NFL player died yesterday ? Apart from his career he’s memorable as Hightower in the Police Academy movies .
tophatal …………..
Chris
I’d also leave Rick Scott alone ! If only he’d simply go away ! Unfortunately the idiots who voted for the guy thought that they were getting the lesser of two evils ! How wrong they were !
Hell , if a Klan member had been running against Scott I’d voted for him instead of this a#_hole now in the governor’ s mansion !
tophatal …………
Al…
Sounds like A-Rod is gonna get off from this poker deal, Al.
It would have been interesting, however, had his presence been confirmed. I wonder what THAT suspension would have been and how it would have affected the Yankees playoff run.
Maybe it was the Rays organization who put out that rumor in the hopes of making the wild card.
Al…
Maybe Rick Scott’s the reason we’ve been getting all this damn rain.
Didn’t they used to call Florida the Sunshine State? What the heck happened to that?
Just thinking about that Joyce blown call puts me close to agreement.There have been many blown calls in baseball, however, replay does slow the game down a lot more. I wouldn’t want to watch a game that already seems slow and where there’s 20 minutes of replay time. Can you assume that they would go to replay for everything other than balls and strikes? Seems like there could be 3 or 4 a game.
All I can say about that, DHS, is that there should be some sort of checks and balances.
Look, we all know life isn’t fair, but if there’s some way to improve the product on the field, then why not do it?
Chris
If A-Rod merely gets a slap on the wrist given the fact that this is the second such incident then it shows how powerless and stupid the MLB hierarchy is known to be . These guys (MLB hierarchy) are beginning to make even the NCAA seem endearing .
The Buckeyes go up in front of the Infractions Committee to plead their case in requesting there not be any additional sanctions as they’ve conducted their own in-house investigations and have found where they made the mistakes and corrected them . It’s the same thing said by the Vatican after the pedophilia cases involving the priests . And as we all know there was so much s_it going down that they couldn’t get a handle on it all !
Rick Scott is an a_s and has done more damage to the state’s economy than a natural disaster could have done .
tophatal …………..