Replay's day in baseball has finally come

Major League Baseball appears headed toward instituting "upon further review" sooner than later.

"I'm for it," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said late Saturday afternoon at Comiskey Park.

Me too. I wanted replay even before hearing Guillen, and even before seeing what I saw after going up to the press box.

The St. Louis-Philadelphia game was on TV. The Cardinals led 3-2 as the Phillies batted with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.

Geoff Jenkins hit a line drive to right field. Ryan Ludwick trapped it. The umpire ruled it an out. Game over, even though a third out wasn't really made.

Fortunately, no such play marred the Sox' 2-0 loss to Colorado, but every play in every game is an umpiring error waiting to decide an outcome.

The Sox made their own errors, 2 to be precise, making both Rockies runs unearned.

Anyway, in the old days replays wouldn't have been any big deal. The fans at home and in the stands wouldn't have had them to separate justice from injustice.

But technology exists now. Everybody on the planet knows what the correct call is … except occasionally the umpires.

Baseball can't perpetuate that. It would be like letting an innocent man go to prison when evidence that would exonerate him was ignored.

Traditionalists don't like the idea of compromising the game's human element. You know, as if tradition meant anything anymore.

This is the outdoor game played indoors when it's convenient. It's played on artificial turf when necessary. It's played with a designated hitter. Milwaukee had the Braves once. Heck, Boston had the Braves once.

The freakin' game was pumped up on steroids for an era and might still be on performance enhancers.

Some tradition, huh?

Again, I refer to the line in a Woody Allen movie: "Tradition is the illusion of permanence."

Sports aren't any more permanent than life is. They evolve just as people do, just as industries do and just as the planet does.

If traditionalists want to be exceptions, they should drive without power steering, sweat without air conditioning and watch TV without flat screens.

The other argument against reviewing calls is the flow of the game would be disrupted.

Huh? You mean it would interrupt pitchers circling the mound before every pitch and batters stepping out of the box after every pitch?

If the game's flow is important, maybe MLB should limit commercials between innings to, say, less time than it takes to run a marathon.

"It doesn't have to take five, 10 minutes," Guillen said of a review. "Look upstairs, two seconds, the guy says yes or no."

One proposal calls for replays to review balls that hit near the top of the fence or foul pole.

"If it's about home runs, yeah, I'm for it," Guillen said.

That's where he and I might disagree. Guillen seems to want to restrict replay to homers. I'm for expanding it to just short of ball and strike calls.

Trap or no trap can decide a game, too. So can safe or out on the bases and fair or foul down the foul line.

Baseball has been way behind football in using technology to help umpires and even a little behind basketball and hockey

Upon further review isn't just due in baseball, it's overdue.