Lucey: Baseball writers react to expanded replay challenges
From SABR member Bill Lucey at NewspaperAlum.com on January 23, 2014:
Clearly, expanded replay was long overdue; its execution was just a matter of time. Umpires, after all, aren’t as ubiquitous as we would like them to be; they are, at times, out of position to make the correct call, at times their eyes play tricks on them, other times, they fall prey to human error and simply blow the call.
The only question is if expanded replays means fans can expect to stay in the yard for up to 4 ½ and 5 hours, especially during the early days of this new system, when managers will be experimenting with their new privileges, egged on in many cases by fans, who after seeing a replay that went against the home team splashed on the scoreboard, will undoubtedly voice their displeasure with an earsplitting chorus of boos.
And with replays being reviewed not by the umpires at the game, but from MLB headquarters in New York, you wonder if this is setting the stage for a painful, time-consuming process that will stretch the game to an uncomfortable length.
With this in mind, I put these very questions to a number of seasoned baseball beat writers and sports columnists in order to get their take on this momentous change with our national pastime.
Read the full article here: http://www.newspaperalum.com/2014/01/baseball-writers-react-to-mlbs-latest-challenge-expanded-replays.html
Originally published: January 24, 2014. Last Updated: January 24, 2014.