Selig Needs To Continue Being Pioneer For MLB And Follow In The Footsteps Of The NFL

Baseball is a game of inches and the players and teams rely on accuracy from umpires.

The problem is that umpires are human and make mistakes. Baseball is not a game that you can challenge every call unless you want each game to be five hours long, but it is a game that some calls definately need to be challenged.

This is an issue that has been discussed in previous years but after three bad calls were made in a matter of days it has been a hot topic. Two of these bad calls happened in The Big Apple, one in the Subway Series on ESPN in front of a national audience when Carlos Delgado clealry hit a three run home-run off of Chien-Ming Wang and the ball was declared foul.

After looking at replay the ball clearly hit off of the foul pole and ricocheted into foul territory. The fan that got the ball even showed the camera exactly where the ball hit as you could clearly see a white scuff mark on the foul pole and a black scuff mark on the ball.

Today, Alex Rodriguez hit a home-run over the right center field wall but it hit off the stairwell just past the fence and bounced back on the field. With a naked eye you can see why the umpires thought the ball hit off the top of the wall, but after a replay and some zooming in on the ball, it was obvious that the ball was over the wall and not just a double for A-Rod.

One call that was ruined came in Houston in the Astros park. A ball hit off a strange angle of the ballpark that is considered home-run territory but was called in play. Fortunatley for the player, they kept running and was just an inside the ball park homerun, not being docked a homer from their records or off the pitchers stats.

Some have argued that baseball is a game that has never relied on technology and never should need technology, while others say that it would be a good idea to be able to view fair and foul balls, others argue it should only see if homeruns do indeed go over the wall or if balls that were called in play were actually over the wall. The arguments go on and on.

The answer seems simple; Let the umpires decide if a call needs to be reviewed and give the managers a chance to challenge a play.

For the amount of time it takes for a manager to go out on the field and argue with the umpires and for the amount of time it takes for the umpires to gather when they do decide to seek the other umpires opinions to try and make sure the call they originally made was correct, they can easily move the conversation over to a main booth where they can look at a replay right on the field.

This would ensure that more correct calls are made as well as that one bad call wouldn't change the complexion of an entire ball game.

In football each team gets one challenge flag per half. If they are correct then they can keep their flag and are not penalized. If they are wrong however, they lose a timeout. In the case of baseball, maybe make one challenge flag available to a manager per every three innings. If they do not use the challenge flags then nothing happens. If they challenge a call and are correct then again, nothing happens. However, if they make a challenge and are wrong about the call then they lose their ability to challenge a call until the next incriment of three innings comes up and they would or could be penalized further.

So, how can you penalize in baseball? Well, first off, you could exchange a bad challenge call for a mound visit. Then basically you are just exchanging one waste of time for another and the team that made the bad call would be hurt as if the manager or pitching coach were to come out even once, they would be forced to either take their pitcher out or just be able to talk to them and be forced one way or another to keep that pitcher in to get themselves out of trouble.

Don't like that idea? That was my favorite, but how about taking away the ability to send up a pinch hitter? It can't be that much of a time difference between looking over a play or having a pinch hitter come in the game.

Think how long it takes for a pinch hitter to come in. The manager calls back a batter that was about to step in the box, a new batter has to put on a helmet, get out of the dugout, take some practice swings, put tar on his bat because he didn't already have it one because he wasn't starting the game, step in the box and have their name announced as the new batter, not to mention that the home plate umpire has to pause and change his line-up card. How much of a time difference really is there?

Whether penalizng a team by not allowing two pitching visits or by not allowing a new batter to take over, it hurts the team if they lose a challenge. This means that a manager won't just throw out a flag because they can but because they feel that a bad call was just made and can lead to bad ramifications for their team if they do not correct the call. The manager wouldn't chance hurting the team unless they were almost positive that they were correct.

Look, the NFL has it right. There is no shame in copying a good idea. Besides, Bud Selig has made some controversial decision during his tenure as the comissioner of Mahjor League Baseball such as making a Wild Card team enter the playoffs or instituting interleague play. It is time he steps up and makes one more revolutionary move to better the sport.