MLB bars umpires from consulting replay
SportsLine wire reports
NEW YORK -- Baseball told umpires to keep their eyes on the ball, not the videotape.
Umpire Frank Pulli's decision to view a replay and change a home run to a double in Florida's 5-2 loss to St. Louis was wrong, NL president Len Coleman said Tuesday. Commissioner Bud Selig and AL president Gene Budig immediately echoed that view.
"Use of the video replay is not an acceptable practice," Coleman said. "Part of the beauty of baseball is that it is imperfect. Players make errors. Managers are constantly second-guessed. But the game is played and determined by two teams between the white lines."
BASEBALL, THE NBA, NCAA FOOTBALL AND soccer do not allow officials to use replays, while the NHL permits it to determine goals and NCAA basketball allows it in a few specific instances.
The NFL had replay from 1986-91 and reinstated it on a limited basis last March after several game-turning calls that replays showed were incorrect.
"Traditionally, baseball has relied on the eyes of the umpires as opposed to any artificial devices for its judgments," Coleman said. "I fully support this policy. Occasionally, however, the umpires too will make mistakes; that is also part of the game."
Floyd claimed his drive Monday was a homer because it bounced off the facade behind the left-field scoreboard in Miami. Second-base umpire Greg Gibson thought the ball hit off the scoreboard and called it a double, but after the Marlins argued, the umpires conferred and Pulli -- the crew chief and third-base ump -- changed the ruling to a homer.
The Cardinals then protested, and the game was delayed for more than five minutes while Pulli studied replays on a TV camera near the Marlins' dugout. After consulting the replay, Pulli changed the call back to a double.
Coleman said Pulli, who with 28 years is second in seniority among NL umpires, was "acting in good faith" but made a mistake. Coleman did not rule on Florida's written protest. Because the Marlins would have gained only one more run if the play had been ruled a homer, it's unlikely the protest will be upheld.
FLOYD, SPEAKING IN MIAMI BEFORE Tuesday night's game, agreed with Coleman's decision. He said allowing replays would lead to more arguments.
"You set yourself up for it to happen again, and you're going to have tons of people thrown out of the game. They'll be arguing until they're green in the face," Floyd said. "Most guys make history by hitting two grand slams in a game or something. I make history by hitting a ball that's reviewed on instant replay."
Kent Bottenfield, the winning pitcher in the game, also thought replays were inappropriate.
"I've never cared for it in football," he said. ''I'm kind of a traditionalist, and I'd rather not see it in baseball."
Florida manager John Boles said his team found "a document that came out in the late '80s from the commissioner's office that explicitly says video is not to be used when determining a call." Budig took a similar stance.
"Major league games are determined between the lines, and electronic assistance is not permitted," Budig said.
Selig backed the decision, saying he was very concerned about the "pace of the game" but didn't want to talk extensively so as not to offend umpires.
The players' association said its position was still being determined.
Major League Baseball ruled umpire Frank Pulli shouldn't have consulted a TV replay to make a call on Sunday.(AP)
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"The players, while not supportive of an extensive use of replay, are not opposed to it for the purposes of determining home runs, foul or fair, above or below the line," said Gene Orza, the union's No. 2 official. "But this is based only on conversations with a few players and we'll have to seek a broader consensus."
There was no immediate reaction from the Major League Umpires Association. Pulli declined comment after Coleman issued his statement.
"A LOT OF THINGS WENT THROUGH MY mind," he said Monday night. ''I hope I don't have to go to the replay again. I don't want it to become like football."
In the NFL, replays will now be limited to out-of-bounds, goal line and possession calls and is based on a coaches' challenge system.
"It's intended for the crucial, game-deciding play, not the third-and-10 in the first quarter," NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.
In March 1997, soccer's International Board rejected the use of replays by officials, an idea proposed by Germany and Portugal.
"We are anxious television doesn't take over the game by controlling the referee," said Sepp Blatter, then FIFA's general secretary and now its president. "Football is composed of human beings, human frailties, mistakes and errors. We have to live with that."
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