Could baseball be ready to give instant replay a look?
In the craziest play of October, Alex Rodriguez was called out for interference. New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman agreed the umpires were correct to overturn their original ruling.
“They got it completely right, 100 percent,” Cashman said this week.
“But you would hate to have a game, or a series or even a season come down to a play where they miss it and instant replay could have helped. So as far as instant replay, I’m in favor of it.”
Now, after a pennant race and postseason dotted with reversed rulings, baseball will get another chance to see who else wants to give replay a look.
The topic is on the agenda for Thursday at the GM meetings. And there seems to be growing support among teams to join the NFL, NBA and NHL in using instant replay on calls such as fair or foul and homer or not, but definitely not balls and strikes.
“I think its time has come,” Milwaukee assistant Gord Ash said. “The technology has improved and is there. I think there’s a place for it.”
Even if replay comes up for a formal vote — it did not go very far last year when GMs debated it — there’s no assurance it would show up during games anytime soon.
“I don’t see it,” Bob Watson, vice president of on-field operations, said Wednesday. “And I don’t think the commissioner is in favor of it, either.”
Earlier in the day, GMs were briefed on plans to play a spring training game next March in Athens — Baltimore probably would be involved — and efforts to hold a World Cup-style tournament in early 2006.
They also talked about letting teams trade first-round draft choices and were told to be vigilant in verifying the ages of players signed in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
And GMs continued to talk about trades. Newly hired Omar Minaya of the New York Mets appeared the most itchy to make a deal, with speculation that he was looking at the likes of Sammy Sosa and Alfonso Soriano, along with exploring a Mike Piazza-for-Shawn Green swap.
But with so many procedural issues to sift through this week, the prospect of adding instant replay is intriguing.
The Cincinnati Reds asked that replay be included on the agenda. Their executives have talked about it internally for a couple of years, and they’ve heard from other clubs lately.