Baseball, replay and righting a wrong

Kent Anderson
Aug 23, 2017 · 4 min read

Seven years, I still get pissed.

Yesterday, some seven years later, the commissioner of baseball was in Detroit. He talked with the Fox Sports Detroit broadcasters and said about the pace of the game, replacing umpires with technology and the Tigers being a cornerstone franchise. Rob Manfred said nothing but nice things about Detroit and even got a tour of the new arena.

But what he didn’t do is correct a wrong. Armando Galarraga pitched a perfect game on June 2, 2010. He knows it, Jim Joyce knows it, the 35,000 or so fans and the millions more who watched it on TV knows it, Bud Selig, the commissioner at the time, knows it. Luke Donald, the Indians player ruled safe, knows it. Hell, EVERYBODY KNOWS IT.

But last night, Mario Impemba, the Tigers play-by-play man, didn’t ask Manfred THEE question, which I would have framed this way…

“Mister Commissioner, in light of replay and the fact that everyone knows what happened here on June 2nd, 2010, isn’t there a way to correct this in hindsight and give Armando Galarraga his and the Tigers franchise their perfect game?”

But of course, Manfred would have reverted back into Bud Selig and come up with a mealy-mouth reason why not, but that game is why we have replay today. Which, because Selig could have done the day after, but choose not to, even after Joyce admitted he was wrong and reportedly called the commissioner’s office three times before leaving to umpire the next day’s game, begging him to change the call, Bud didn’t. Manfred hasn’t taken any action yet.

He did say, however, the replacing the home plate umpire with a robotic or a computerized version, isn’t “ready technologically.” But then explain this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gAlKCUac10

I’m not sure you could speed up the game, as many would like to see, Manfred is working with the Players association on ways to do that. One way that could help is by reducing visits to the mound by the catcher and infielders, players stepping out of the box more than once an at-bat and enforcement of the two minute rule on replays.

Also, several clubs, including the Indians and Royals have moved their starting times up an hour to 6:10 p.m. The problem being is that today, with costs running sky high and the need for sponsors to get their ads in on TV, you have a dilemma. Since every game is televised and your average ticket price being $50, to take a family of four to a game, it runs at least $300 to take said family to a game. When did a tee-shirt with a team logo on it cost $35? Or an adjustable hat $25? It’s outrageous that a night (or afternoon) at the ballgame runs two car payments. Dropping $500 at a sporting event is ridiculous. But people do.

Back in the 1960’s, you were lucky to get 25 games a year on TV, unless you lived in Chicago, where the Cubs did almost every game. By the 1980’s, it was 45–60 games a year. You had the game of the week on NBC and the playoffs and World Series. In the 1990’s, with the proliferation of cable, some teams started their own networks, like the Yankees (YES) Red Sox (NESN) and Orioles (MASN). There were other regional networks, like PASS in the Midwest and Sportschannel Ohio. Then along came FOX, which started buying up all the regional networks and renaming them. PASS became Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports West, etc. The only regional networks left, pre-FS-you name it, is NESN, YES and MASN.

Tomorrow, I’m going to my last Tigers game of the season, in all likelihood. Against the Yankees. Since the team is destined for just their third losing season since 2006, I will probably not go to any games in September. This is the most expensive seat I purchased at $81. Then again, it’s on the lower level, behind the Tigers doughout, so I’m lucky. All my other seats have been pretty good and great sight lines. But I refuse to buy merchandise or food at these games. I’m a fan first, journalist second. I am not, as an Angels ex-executive once said, a customer. Well, I suppose I am, because I did buy these tickets, but paying nearly $40 in charges really didn’t sit well with me, being that I’m on a fixed income and disabled.

Where baseball is headed is anyone’s guess. But it has been around for nearly 150 years and I suspect will be a while longer. But something’s gotta give.

The goose that laid the golden eggs since the 1960’s, television, is about to have lay some cracked eggs. The 1984 Cable Act and the 1996 Telecommunications Act are outdated and need to be changed. There are alternatives to cable, Sling TV for example, that now offer regional sports packages. More are coming.

As we switch from TV that runs $150 on average per month, we need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. People will watch Lindsay Hayes go off-roading and Texas Hold-em poker tournaments, but not table tennis or handball. They’ll watch darts, but not rugby. Champions League soccer, but not MLS. Women’s World Cup but not the NWSL. Or the WNBA. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

In the meantime “Win or lose, I got them lifelong Tiger fans blues.”

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