May 27, 2008
AFTER a bunch of home runs were miscalled last week, the cry for "limited use TV replay" was heard from the redwood forest to the Gulfstream waters. Yep, replay will fix it, and fast.
But hold on.
Increasingly, team owners are creating the TV networks on which their teams appear (see: YES, SNY). And if you think that all producers and directors of these telecasts are going to aggressively pursue replays - replays including super close-up, super slo-mo evidence - that will cost their bosses a game or two, and perhaps millions in postseason revenues, your 90-day Giuseppe Franco guarantee is about to expire.
Evidence that can be suppressed will be suppressed, or simply left intentionally undiscovered. Even the most noble executive producers, cognizant of who butters their bread, will be left compromised.
Game producers and directors will carry that unwritten memo: There are times when indisputable video evidence should be quickly pursued, times when it should not. Such a directive can be real or imagined; it doesn't matter. It'll be real when the time comes.
After all, altruism among team owners is hardly guaranteed. At least one even has two felony convictions for stacking a deck. And how many club owners screamed for integrity when the cash-for-bash steroid era so obviously arrived? If owners and GMs demand cheerleaders in the broadcast booth, why wouldn't they expect the same in the TV truck?
If the three-run homer to give the team owner's opponent the lead in the midst of a September wild-card chase was erroneously called a foul ball, what are the owner's TV folks to do? Get busy pursuing and providing evidence that it was a home run? Stick a knife in their boss's heart/wallet?
The cure - and the stink - will be worse than the disease. The innocent will be suspected of guilt while the guilty, in service to those who pay them, will selectively determine the outcomes of big-league ballgames.
So be careful for what you wish and be skeptical of quick-fix solutions that sound good. No one will cease being a baseball fan unless there's a replay rule. The games, even in the hands of erring umpires, will still be in the hands of those who ostensibly have no stake in the call. And even when they get it wrong, that's how it goes.
