Bryan Burwell

Like everything else in this pastoral game, change comes about slowly in baseball. So consider this cautious step into the 21st century — instituting the limited use of instant replay as an umpire aid — a radical walk on the wild side.

Baseball, at long last, has joined every other major sport in America in its belated use of TV replays. Major League Baseball will crank up the replay system on disputed home-run calls only beginning Thursday night.

"Some people thought we ought to wait until the postseason, and that struck me as really being awkward," commissioner Bud Selig, a noted baseball traditionalist, said in a conference call. "I'd rather go into the postseason knowing we've already used it. To use one of my favorite lines, this isn't Einstein's theory of relativity. We have the best technology you can possibly have, and the procedures have been described in great detail. I wanted to do it as soon as possible."

So if you have the "best technology" at your disposal, why limit its use to home-run calls? Why not open the door to pretty much everything but balls and strikes? Why not have the option to evaluate close plays at the plate, questionable double plays or obviously incorrect calls at first base? (Can you say "Don Denkinger"?)

That makes the most sense to me, but I’m not technophobic. I have seen replay work in football, hockey and tennis to incredible success. Getting it right should be the most important thing. So while Selig should be praised for having the good instincts to push replay onto the fast track, his next task should be to convince some of his old-school buddies (and maybe even himself) that more replay is a good thing.

The trouble is, too many baseball traditionalists will have you believe that America’s Pastime is on the verge of some Terminator-like hostile takeover of dangerous machines. Instant replay, the purists tell us, is corrupt and dangerous. They are like so many brooding Sarah Connor warriors, convinced that instant replay in baseball will ultimately take away our free will, eliminate our will to live, and that anyone who wants to use it is not only hopelessly ugly, but nothing nice will ever happen to them, either.

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At the risk of having all those insidious woes ruin my day, I just want to know why MLB can’t go even further. Why can’t baseball just say it’s way past time to institute replay as a useful tool for every non-ball-and-strike controversy? Why can’t a manager have the option to toss a flag onto the field and request a replay review of a play? Why does the replay call have to be left up to the discretion of the umpiring crew?

"The sport has a pace to it where you have to be very sensitive," Selig said. "Even if this works well — and there's no doubt it will — it's sort of like the wild card a few years ago. First, people criticized it, and now they want more wild cards. Just because something works well, you don't go on to do more."

Listen to that for a moment and fully absorb what Selig said.

“Just because something works well, you don’t go on to do more.”

Huh?

Why not?