Instant Replay

Once again, it seems a baseball team won a game it maybe shouldn't have. My apologies to all the baseball purists out there who want to keep the game played the way it was before World War 1, but it is indeed the year 2010. We have planes that fly through the air, and a polio vaccine. They even invented this doohickey called a Television which, I am certain, they would have used for instant replay if the technology existed back when baseball was born. Technology has made our lives better, and it can do the same for professional sports, including baseball.

Some argue that there's a "human element" to the game that must be preserved, and instant replay diminishes this human element. What about the humans who actually PLAY the games? Shouldn't THEY be the human element that matters most? Shouldn't their achievements or failures define the game and not the error of an official? If a man beats a throw to first through hard work and physical skill, shouldn't that human element be prioritized?

In a game of black & white issues, (safe or out, fair or foul, catch or no-catch) one would think there would be no controversy over whether or not to include instant replay. There is the issue of what to do with other baserunners not involved in a reviewed call, where to place them after the fact. But the NFL seems to have got it right. Some issues are reviewable, and some are not. You only get two challenges per game, and none of them can be used in the last two minutes of a half. Baseball could implement its own set of parameters. Balls & strikes wouldn't be reviewable, but a safe or out call at first base with nobody on base certainly could. How about a close play at home with two outs?

It seems to me that keeping instant replay out (or practically non-existent) in baseball is a terribly short-sighted effort to maintain the status quo and stay with the devil you know rather than the devil you don't. And if umpires cost millions of fans the euphoric feeling of winning a championship or witnessing a perfect game once in a while, I guess we'll just have to get used to it. And maybe 48 states was plenty too.