Steeped in tradition, Major League Baseball is generally slow to make changes. Ask a baseball traditionalist about the designated hitter and after a 30-minute rant, you'll understand what I mean. But in recent years, new trends like baggy pants, steroids and Jose Guillen have come along and made the game far more entertaining.
So yesterday's announcement that baseball will start using instant replay on questionable home run calls should be looked at as a positive. The game is evolving, and so are the stadiums. With fans closer to the field, making the right judgment on home runs is as important as ever. As evidenced throughout the last 15 years, umpires are routinely confounded on balls that don't clearly get over the fence.
This is like when Sega added trading players as an option for World Series Baseball 95. Sure, the game play was identical to the 1994 version, but the ability to trade players resulted in hundreds of more hours spent constructing the greatest video game lineup ever (who knew completing a trade for Marty Cordova would be so hard?).
Critics will argue that the human element is being taken away. They'll say it slows down an already slow game. But by limiting the replays to "boundary calls" - basically any uncertain home run call as determined by the game's crew chief, MLB got this one right. It's subtle enough where it will rarely ever impede on a game. Yet having the option could drastically alter the outcome for this year's postseason and beyond.
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