"We gotta play it one day at a time."

As I sit here at midnight watching the NCAA Women’s College World Series opening round, I am thinking about all those fun afternoons I used to have cheering on the Lady Rams of Berkner High School in Richardson. I recall the chants that would come from the dugout, the stomping of cleats, and the clapping of the abnormally subdued fans in the stands. Then, I remember myself…the loudest person there…yelling out the nicknames of my friends at the top of my lungs and smiling as those around me looked on with skeptical eyes. I loved softball for the same reasons I love baseball. It’s a team sport where what you do individually can make or break your team’s success. It’s outdoors, in the spring and summer, which is usually beautiful (if not completely, smothering hot). There’s the crack of the bat, the hustle for the ball, and the close calls by the umpires. You can smell the nachos, the fresh cut grass, and the intoxicating scent of infield dirt (an acquired taste). Don’t forget the fly balls, line drives, homeruns, worm burners, dying quails, and ground balls with eyes. Everything that makes football great…brute force and intense struggle…is juxtaposed by baseball…precise power and easygoing finesse. Now that I’ve told you why I have a unique love of the stick and balls sports, baseball and softball, I will tell you what is pissing me off about them. Change. This constant need to continue to change the rules and regulations is a threat to a game which true fans still refer to as “America’s pastime”.

Here’s the situation, the most recent one, anyway. Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was in the ninth inning working on a perfect game (what would be the third one of this year). A simple ground ball play for the third out of the inning in which Galarraga had to move over to cover first was mysteriously boned. Not by Galarraga, who made it over to first, received the ball, and stepped on the bag before the batter got there, but apparently by umpire Jim Joyce. Galarraga will likely move on with his major league career with the stinging knowledge that only one of the worst blown calls in baseball history prevented him from becoming the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game. You can't say the same for Joyce, a 23-year veteran whose reputation went done the crapper when he inexplicably called Cleveland's Jason Donald safe at first with that infield hit. I didn’t see the play live because why the hell would I be watching the Tigers/Indians game? But I did see the replays that clearly showed that Galarraga's foot beat Donald to the bag by a full step. Galarraga handled the situation the way you would expect a major league professional to, by sucking it up, getting back on the mound and getting the next guy out. Tigers manager Jim Leyland handled it the way you would expect a major league manager to handle it by chewing Joyce out both directly after the play and right after the end of the game.

First, let me say that I commend Armando Galarraga how cool and level headed he was both during the game and after the game in interviews. And Jim Joyce, after seeing the replay, realized he screwed up and apologized in postgame interviews as well. As I was watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN it all started. Karl Ravich went all “instant replay needs to be expanded” and my blood pressure went through the roof. That’s right, I’m not bringing up this situation to rally behind the rest of you bleeding hearts out there who want every call to be perfect no matter how much you bastardize the game. I’m here to tell you that the most important part of baseball, the most influential, the most interesting part of baseball is the fact that calls are made on the field by real men (who can make mistakes, and do) without the need for or use of instant replay. Now yes, baseball has changed over the years with some things I agree with (the designated hitter) and some things I disagree with (Astroturf). Change is needed to adjust with the times, but instant replay has been around a while…baseball hasn’t needed it yet and it doesn’t need it now.

I could innumerate all the reasons why think that instant replay in baseball would be terrible, but do you really want me to waste your time with that? Probably not. The real thing that needs to be looked at here is how do you want to handle a professional sport that has been thriving for years without the need of much modern intervention? You let it ride, that is what you do. I don’t know if many of you have noticed, but when there is a bad call or even the rare blown call the only people who are really shaking the trees are the ones who suffer from the call in question. As a fan, just this year, I saw a terrible call against my team, the Rangers, that could have been turned around with instant replay and wasn’t. Josh Hamilton had an obvious homerun according to multiple camera angles of replays, but the umpire on the field ruled it a ground rule double. When the manager came on the field to argue the call the umpires refused to review the hit, as it is the umpire’s discretion to use said replay in any circumstance. Would this be the same for all replays? Then who is to say that Jim Joyce wouldn’t have refused to review the call on that play that killed Galarraga’s perfecto? Exactly, no one. And if you want to have different rules for different replay reviews in different situations, then how are the fans going to deal with that? How will managers and players deal with that? Exactly, you have no answer. If there was no replay option and things stayed as they are what would happen? Absolutely nothing. Nothing is better than “I don’t know”. Keep instant replay review out of baseball.

I’ll leave you with this…

[Larry jogs out to the mound to break up a players' conference]
Larry: Excuse me, but what the hell's going on out here?
Crash Davis: Well, Nuke's scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man's here. We need a live...is it a live rooster?
[Jose nods]
Crash Davis: …we need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present.
[to the players]
Crash Davis: Is that about right?
[the players nod]
Crash Davis: We're dealing with a lot of shit.
Larry: Okay, well, uh... candlesticks always make a nice gift, and uh, maybe you could find out where she's registered and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern. Okay, let's get two! Go get 'em.

…an example of what is really on players’ minds during a ballgame.