Umpire Reviews: Boo! Boo! Boo!

I watched tonight's free game at MLB.com.  Oakland at Toronto.  It was an opportunity to watch two young infielders from the state of Oregon play on the same field--Darwin Barney and Jed Lowrie.

I try to occasionally check in on the Oregon players throughout the season.  Oregon doesn't have optimal baseball weather, so it's always interesting to see who emerges from our muddy prep fields and actually makes it to the big leagues--not an easy challenge, but not as rare as one might imagine.

Oregon State has a great college program and has for years. Coach Pat Casey is another Oregon guy who played briefly in the big leagues before turning to coaching. He regularly fields excellent teams and manages to get many of the best prep players out of our state as well as brave kids from warmer climes who want to play for a winner despite the spring rains.

Barney, 30, played for Casey at OSU, winning back-to-back College World Series in 2005-06. Lowrie is 32 and played his high school ball at North Salem before attending Stanford.  Jed got away from Casey--but it's Stanford for Christ's sake...

I've already watched damn near as many innings this young season as I watched all of last year.

It's not always easy for me to watch baseball.  I have to be in the right space spiritually and mentally; things have to be right in the moment when I start watching.  I like baseball, played the game as a kid and a year in college--but it is far from being a religion in my book.

It is the holy game to many.

I can go long stretches, months without paying attention.  I like baseball, but like just about everything else it's way over-hyped, and, like God, worshiped to a fault.

The players themselves are traded around like baseball cards once were, and perhaps still are. (Does Topps still make cards? I looked it up; they do.)

But, while watching more baseball than usual recently, I have a new bitch about the game.  I really dislike the use of instant replay to review umpires' calls in baseball now. Human error, when it happens, should be part of the game--from the shortstop kicking a grounder to a bang-bang play that the umpire may or may not call correctly.

I prefer the old style, the ambiguity in the game, the grit and spit and old-fashioned cussing.

I want to see the old arguments returned to the game, the manager kicking dirt at home plate, somebody carrying the third base bag off the field and throwing it into the stands.

I want to see discord and upheaval.  It's a game, not a damn murder trial. (O.K., billions are involved, so what?)

I don't want any more technology in my baseball world.

MLB needs to drop the replay/review habit.  It was a bad idea.


TS