Is replay really the answer?

For those who don't know, last night in baseball (yes I'm referring to baseball here for once), there was a terrible call last night that cost a pitcher a perfect game. The call can be viewed here.

With that missed call, the first thought many had was, "Why is there no instant replay to change the call?"

While instant replay will likely be expanded in baseball at some point, I come to argue that its not always the best thing. We can even screw up instant replay. Dr. Saturday over at Yahoo Sports has his opinion on it looking at the Oregon-Oklahoma onside kick controversy in 2006.

Here, I will look at another, much less important replay screwup, coincidentally involving the same Oregon team later that season when they played USC. Much of the reason this call had no significance is because it came in a game that finished 35-10 and when it happened it made the score 28-10 in the 4th quarter with Oregon having no real chance to get back into the game.

I couldn't even find video of this online, so here is a link to a forum post describing what happened. If you read the first post at that forum, what sticks out?

To me, it is that we had two reversals on one play. How the heck do you have two reversals on one play? Shouldn't one replay be enough to have definitive evidence and if two are needed, shouldn't the whole thing just be deemed inconclusive and therefore the call stands?

To me, this just shows that replay is not the be all end all. The phrase but it needs to be right is correct, until you realize the replay system doesn't always get it right.

To some degree, I think both soccer and basketball have good systems for their games. Soccer doesn't use it at all. There are too many differences between tv coverages all over the world to uniform it and if it can't be uniform in every game worldwide, don't use it at all. The get it right people might scream and complain, but at least the system is known and equitable and there won't be different sets of rules between different competitions.

Of course, there are still issues in soccer because of this. Thierry Henry's handball to setup the winning goal to get France into the World Cup comes to mind immediately as does Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal in the 1986 World Cup against England shown below with Leo Messi's left hand goal last season in the Spanish Primera League.

Even is basketball where there are limited replay rules (referees can review whether shots are a three or a two and whether a shot was released before the clock expires at the end of a quarter, half or game) replay can be messed up. Look here at the Indiana-Charlotte college game from 2004.

While it doesn't say anything there, Indiana was awarded the win on that shot despite the Charlotte player having released the buzzer beating shot in time (barely).

All of this says that replay isn't always the answer as baseball types seem to be making it out to be. It does get it right the majority of the time, but even it is fallible. As long as it can be done without lengthening games any longer or changing the way balls and strikes are called, I am generally in favor of replay in baseball (as I am in most sports), but there is a dissenting opinion out there and replay can both overstep its bounds and still be wrong on occasion too.