What's it gonna take, Bud? A series decided by a bad call, a team screwed out of a chance to advance a round or win the World Series, before you agree to expanded use of replay review?
In the fourth inning of last night's Braves/Giants game, Buster Posey of the Giants stole second base. Three batters later, Cody Ross singled him in for the only run of the game.
But, as all of you who watched the game know, Posey was out. And it wasn't even close. Here's a good view of it, screencapped and sent by TwitPic last night. 2B umpire Paul Emmel was out of position and blew the call. If we had replay review -- with an umpire in the press box looking at replays -- it would have been reversed in about 30 seconds and the game would have continued; Juan Uribe's strikeout would have ended the inning and the game would have kept going, scoreless.
Now, the way Tim Lincecum was pitching last night, the Braves weren't going to score anyway and maybe the Giants would have figured out another way to push a run across. But we'll never know, and it's possible that bad call led to a Giants victory. We're getting these kinds of calls in almost every postseason game.
There's absolutely no reason any reasonable person can be against having replay review for everything except ball/strike calls (which means the check swing call on Michael Young in the Rays/Rangers game wouldn't have been reviewable, and that didn't decide the game, anyway). Do it, NOW. It could even still be done before this postseason is over.
Before a Game Five in the NLDS or Game Seven in the LCS or World Series is decided by a bad call.
5:00 pm CDT: Reds at Phillies. Phillies lead series 1-0. Announcers: Brian Anderson, Joe Simpson and David Aldridge. MLB.com Gameday for Reds/Phillies
8:30 pm CDT: Braves at Giants. Giants lead series 1-0. Announcers: Dick Stockton, Bob Brenly and Tom Verducci. MLB.com Gameday for Braves/Giants
SB Nation game preview for Reds/Phillies
SB Nation game preview for Braves/Giants
Once again, I'm only going to post one discussion thread, but if it gets slow later and you need an overflow, post it in the FanShot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.