Time For Replay (As in: Can the Mets Replay These Games?)

I'm often misunderstood. Which is why when I complain about a horseshit call by Brian Knight and call for more instant replay, you might think I'm only doing that because my favorite team was affected, and because I think the Mets 2-0 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday would have been totally different had Knight made the correct call. On the contrary, my dear readers. Brandon Morrow was dominant before the blown call, he was dealin' after the bad call, and there's no reason to think he wouldn't have gotten one more out against a team that had three hits against him all game.

But we need more instant replay. Sorry, the time has come. I could care less about purity, sanctity, and especially the fabricated beauty of human error. Screw that. I'm a Mets fan ... I deal with plenty of human error from the home team, I don't need any from the neutral parties. Take a look at the play again where Mike Baxter was robbed of a double by Knight's call and Yunel Escobar's Clooney-like acting ability. Brian Knight didn't make a bad call because he's a bad umpire. He made a bad call because he wasn't in position to make the right call. Notice, I didn't say that Knight was in a bad position, but he was blocked off the angle where he would have seen what really happened.

You might respond with "well it's easy to have seven camera angles but an umpire only has one set of eyes." And that's your reply, then you just made my point. It is easy to have seven camera angles of one play. So why in the bloody hell are we not taking advantage of the technology at our disposal to get calls that would otherwise be wrong right? Brian Knight and every other umpire in the world can't get every call right on the money. Eyes are powerful organs. But they don't have 360 vision or super slo-mo replays because the aliens that do have them haven't mated with humans long enough to make it a part of their genetic make-up. Until then, eyes can only see what's in front of them. Brian Knight never had a chance to get that call right, just like Tim Welke never had a chance to see that Todd Helton was two feet away from first base. Technology can help in this regard. It's not meant to embarrass umpires, it's meant to help them. If you think having instant replay would embarrass an umpire, ask yourself this: Would you have read Brian Knight's name once in this blog post if instant replay was around to correct his call?

And if the Mets had won, I'd feel the same way about replay, and I might have even made the same point. But the Mets lost. They lost because they couldn't hit worth a lick, David Wright is sick, and the answer to the broadcast booth's key to the game was ...

 

That's right, nobody. Not a damn soul. Jeremy Hefner came in for an aging rapidly before our eyes Miguel Batista, pitched fairly well, but the lineup couldn't pick him up. And by the way: the Mets are now 0-5 in games that followed team bonding exercises on airplanes. Chemistry? Overrated. Especially when Brandon Morrow is mashing the turbo button.