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CHICAGO - A gray, rectangular box on the wall of the umpires dressing room at Wrigley Field containing a phone and a high definition TV monitor signaled a new era Thursday as instant replay arrived in major league baseball.
An umpiring crew chief can pick up the phone and ask a replay center in New York to send him all available feeds so he can review boundary calls — was a ball fair or foul, was it over the fence or not, did a fan interfere with a potential home run?
“Purists are not going to like this and not everyone is going to like it,” umpiring supervisor Larry Young said Thursday, before the Cubs played the Phillies.
“We are going to do our best to do it quickly and accurately.”
Determining where home runs land — or if they are homers at all — can often be the most difficult call for an umpire. There have been 18 such plays so far this season, Young said.
“That is how many we’ve had so far and it will vary from year to year,” he added.
The crew chief will have most of the authority. If there is a question about a home run, the umpires will consult with one another, as they often do, and the crew chief will make the decision. One umpire will remain on the field while the review is underway, a process that Young hopes will be completed within 2 1/2 minutes.
Young said the video center in New York, where feeds from the 30 major league ballparks is already being collected, will assist the game umpires with the replays but will have no part in determining the call.
A manager can’t demand a review, although he can ask for one. And once the decision is made, he can’t argue or he will be ejected.
“When we come back with a ruling from video replay there is no argument, unless it involves spectator interference, and then the manager is entitled to an explanation,” Young said.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who turned 65 on Thursday and has been around baseball most of his life, was agreeable.
“We’re only talking about home runs balls. We’re not talking about plays at third base or balls and strikes or any of those things. We’re just talking about a select portion of the game,” he said.
“Sometimes with the configurations of these ballparks and so forth, it makes it tough.”
Getting it right is what major league baseball said was most important when it ended its long holdout from video replay.
The NFL first used replay to aid officials in 1986, the NHL in 1991 and the NBA in 2002.
It’s also used in tennis.
“I’m a throwback old baseball guy and I like the way that baseball is played and I like the part where the umpires’ decision held up. And at the same time it didn’t mean that they don’t miss them and they don’t get them right. That’s part of it,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.
“I think instant replay will definitely help that. But I think it will take a little bit longer in the game. And every year we go to spring training and the season starts and they always talk to us about shortening the time of the game.”
Phillies reliever Scott Eyre, who started the season with the Cubs, had the same concern.
“If they have to do a replay, you’re standing out there for five minutes doing nothing,” Eyre said. “They want to speed the game up, make the call.”
Some of the newer stadiums make it difficult to determine where a ball lands.
“The way they are building them now with all the angles, it’s tougher to see what is going on,” Cubs center fielder Jim Edmonds said. “It doesn’t really matter either way for me. I hope it doesn’t distract anything. I hope they get the calls right.”
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“I know if I hit a ball and it’s a home run and it gets called a double and they go to replay and change it, I’m going to be excited,” he said. “And if it’s reversed, it’s going to be one of those things where it shouldn’t have been a home run in the first place.”
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