Professional sports occur at high rates of speed, quick plays leave fans rethinking what just happened. In the past, close calls were a controversial point in sports. Arguments changed the way games were seen by the public and unfair rulings would lead to referees being persecuted by the public. At first the rulings seemed to help the game, but over time replay has taken away many facets of sports.
Instant replay can be used to see if a play is inbounds in football, a goal crossed the line in hockey, a homerun is fair or foul, and even if the ball hit the line in tennis. Major League Baseball was the latest to install the replay system at the beginning of the 2009 season to judge if home runs left the ballpark or stayed in play. After going through the season, commissioners want to expand the field of view to judging close calls on the bases. Even though the playoffs, the leading story was the amount of blown calls even though MLB puts more umps in the field during the postseason.
The instant replay has already been proven in this year’s World Series. For instance, Alex Rodriguez’s apparent double off the wall in game 3 of the series actually hit a TV camera over the fence and it was changed to a homer. As technology and different camera angles expand, controversial calls will be forgotten and everything will have an answer. People are blinded by the expansion of instant replay, it has been negatively impacting sports.
Close calls create excitement, debate, and controversy for the sports world. Eliminating officials and their points of view takes a major piece out of many sports. The NFL seems to have provided the most interesting situation, giving each coach 2 challenges to question the refs’ decisions. This doesn’t eliminate the yelling at officials by coaches or the missed calls that keep fans angry. It creates a sort of side game during the actual game where it’s important to communicate with a referee. Fans and players need to get over the fact that one call ruins the game. The fact the majority of the time is that the team put themselves in a bad position and it’s not the ref’s fault they lost a game.
Instant replay isn’t going to correct problems, but it will slow down baseball games just as it has done to other sports. At the professional level, just as players make clutch plays, umpires are there to make clutch calls. Some sports like football, the officials cannot be in position for every call. Rather in sports like baseball, umpires should be in the correct position to make every call. The point is that as more and more aspects of sports change, the work of officials is being eliminated. Sports will start losing an aspect of their excitement just as is currently happening in baseball
It’s a part of the game that fans take for granted. Instead of plotting to get back at an official for missing a call, we should embrace what officiating has done for sports.