Get It Right, Eventually, And See If Anyone Still CAres

Only a booth review will determine whether baseball is committing a ghastly own-goal with their expanded replay idea.

I find football games, with the refs huddling around a camera waiting for a puff of smoke to announce that a decision has been made, unwatchable. Now baseball?

Comments

[MarkO]

He missed the tag. He missed the tag. He threw the flag.

[Danube on iPad]

How much do you enjoy watching a five-minute argument?

[NK]

I'm with Tom M on this. Stoopid idea.

[Dave (in MA)]

I'd like to see them get rid of the unwritten rule that makes it an out at 2nd if the fielder is anywhere within 3 feet of the bag.

[Dave (in MA)]

Speaking of 2nd base, the son of Jerry Remy was arrested for stabbing his girlfriend to death last night. The local sports station is speculating that we might not see Remy-who's been fighting lung cancer-doing any more Sox games.

[steve]

Sports lose more from a wrong call (that impacts the game) than from the occasional standing around while umpires/referees look at a TV screen.

As with so much in life and politics, people (fans in this case) want it 'right', defined as the proper call, and they care less about the process by which one gets to 'right'.

[henry]

Life imitating lawyers, and you guys don't like it? ;)

FYI I think its dumb where ever implemented. Refs / Umps do stupid things on occasion, and that gives everyone some thing to argue about over beer. All the replay review does is give blowhards on TV more time to bloviate.

[Jane]

"Speaking of 2nd base, the son of Jerry Remy was arrested for stabbing his girlfriend to death last night."

Was that what happened in Waltham?

[Danube on iPad]

I like the way college football does it. No challenges, every play reviewed, and the decision is almost instantaneous.

[NK]

DoT-- if there must be review, do it like College Football, NHL, Int'l Rugby-- the NFL type 'challenge' stinks. takes forever, and gets things more wrong than the other sports (I do admit, the Tennis Challenge system does work well). as Henry points out the NFL challenge is a made for TV bloviating thing.

[Threadkiller]

A Great-Grandmother Says San Diego Mayor Kissed Her, Told Her He 'Could Go 8 Hours'

http://www.businessinsider.com/great-grandmother-says-bob-filner-kissed-her-2013-8

[Threadkiller]

Oops, meant to post that on the open thread.

[Ignatz]

After the Raiders won their first Super Bowl they faced the Broncos in the next year's AFC title game which was a titanic low scoring defensive struggle.
Late in the game with the Broncos at Oakland's one or two yard line Mike McCoy made a miraculous saving hit deep in the middle of the line forcing Rob Lytle to fumble on the one which Oakland recovered.
Because it was deep inside the pile up the refs blew the ball dead and Denver kept it, scored and went on to lose miserably to the Cowboys.
IMO any amount of standing around staring in a hoodie is worth preventing a team that didn't earn its way to the Super Bowl going anyway.

Now, about that Immaculate Reception.....

[jimmyk]

The tennis challenge works so well I would think that at some point they can do away with all the line judges and just have a machine calling the balls out. Of course it's much simpler and more objective than the calls in football and baseball.

I happened to flip on an NFL exhibition game the other night where they spent at least 5 minutes figuring out whether a guy was out of bounds or not when he caught a pass. Replay for an exhibition game?!

At least in this case it sounds like the umpires won't be making the decision, it will be off-field, which should be faster.

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

Football's replay has been marred from the get go due to spineless commissioners deferring to the dimwitted Competition committee setting up a tiresome procedure which defied available technology and common sense.

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

By "football" I mean the NFL; I agree with DoT that colleges handle it much better.

[NK]

JimmyK- no linesmen in tennis?

John McEnroe shrieks "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!"

[Threadkiller]

The replay delay is designed to prolong stadium beer sales.

It showed up about the same time as the stupid 4th quarter booze ban.

Drink for two hours straight and sober up in thirty minutes?

Their other scam keeps you from getting drunk in the first place:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjNfJGJT9Do

[peter]

Anything that makes baseball more modern and more like the NFL is a bad thing. Its appeal to me is nostalgic. Are we going to replace, "Hey ump, you need a seeing eye dog!" with "Look at the thirty seventh pixel in frame fourteen."

[Stephanie]

Arod's "associates"? Anyone buying the idea that the petulant bambino had no idea that the documents he purchased from biogenesis ended up in his "associates" hands and delivered to the media. Me neither.

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

It does serve to lengthen a game with yet more non on the field action. I've long maintained that the real problem is the overly large number of rule changes that are made with little to no regard given to how difficult they are to enforce.

[NK]

TK-- hope your daughter's OK, and your dog's behaving.

[James D.]

The thing I really hate about NFL replay is the obscure, legalistic rules over what can or can't be challenged and overturned.

It's absurd that there can be an obvious, blatant missed call (say, a brutal late hit that the refs didn't see but which the TV shows a thousand times and you can see the exact instant the quarterback loses consciousness), but they'll spend ten minutes deciding whether the ball should be spotted on the 40 yard line or the 39 and a half yard line.

[Threadkiller]

Thanks NK. It was horrible, but it is much better now. Baby girl is doing fine. She is slighty marked up but nothing of real significance.

She explained what happened with a little more clarity this morning. She woke up and wanted a glass of water. #1 dog was on the floor next to her bed, fast asleep. She said "he looked so cute I wanted to give him a hug".

As she did he woke startled and confused and snapped. It wasn't a mauling by any stretch.

I still laid out a pretty severe punishment for him, just to make sure their was still the same pecking order around here.

When he was finally let back in the house he went straight to his favorite little girl and assumed his "riddle of the sphinx" posture, protecting her bedroom as he is always want to do.

No needle for him.

For now...

Again, thank you for your concern.

Great group of people here.

[Threadkiller]

...there...

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

You want to eliminate a lot of bad calls from football? Eliminate holding as a penalty. No rule is either missed, often blatantly, or called erroneously as holding. It would result in more offense and would allow the zebras to concentrate on things easier to detect.

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

Good news TK; well relatively speaking. Dogs can whirl and fire when abruptly woken up. I've been guilty of that as well.

[Lie Du Jour.]

Gellman offers the latest drip on NSA with an internal 2012 audit making Obama's Friday speech 'pants on fire'.

He beat Greenwald to the punch, maybe because he wanted to get it in the public record before Bezos craps it up.

[Porchlight]

No. Baseball does it right. The call is the call. Some will be bad. That is the way the cookie crumbles.

[Extraneus]

A zoo in the central China city of Luohe attempted to pass off a Tibetan mastiff as a lion, state media reported. The large, aggressive breed has a trademark bushy mane that gives it a lion-like appearance, but its vocalizations are more woof than roar.

The Beijing Youth Daily said Friday the zoo also had a dog in the wolf cage, foxes in the leopard enclosure and nutrias in the snake den.

Though the zoo said it wasn't trying to fool anyone, it issued an apology to the public and closed for "rectification," reported another newspaper, the Beijing News. It also planned to reorganize its public-private management structure, although the details were still being worked out, the newspaper said.

The Beijing Youth Daily quoted zoo manager Liu Suya as denying any attempt at deception, saying the lion had been lent out for breeding and would be back soon. The dog belonged to a friend of a zoo keeper who was on a business trip and needed a place to keep his pet while away, Liu said.

Liu said the leopard had also been lent out for breeding, while the snake and wolf were merely sheltering from the torrid summer heat. The substitute animals had been drafted because an empty cage would have "looked bad," Liu said.

"If visitors require an explanation, we'd be happy to give it to them," Liu said.

[NK]

Ex@11:25-- Mr. Liu would be a perfect SpokesLiar for the Obummer Admin! shameless and idiotic lies.

[Lie Du Jour.]

WAPO set the judge up.....

"The chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often the government’s surveillance breaks the court’s rules that aim to protect Americans’ privacy. Without taking drastic steps, it also cannot check the veracity of the government’s assertions that the violations its staff members report are unintentional mistakes."

Liars/clueless....you make the call.

[Extraneus]

Priebus calls Romney a "racist"

[Rob Crawford]

nutrias in the snake den

As food for the snakes?

[James D.]

What IS a nutria?

[12_666_cathyf_hates_typepad_72]

Silly story...

The ND Band has several photographers who take pictures at every football game and they put them up on shutterfly for band members and families to enjoy. Included in the pics are a series of these very silly pictures of various sections: Sousaphones have their horns on the ground and are all leaning over with heads inside the bells. Drummers hold their sticks above their heads My Favorite Martian style. Clarinets and trombones are wearing their bells like hats. Flutes have theirs sticking up out of the middle of their heads.

I asked WonderBoy what the heck this is. Apparently a band tradition -- they do this for good luck during the replay reviews.

So something good comes of replays anyway.

(Oh, and of course trumpets don't do that!)

[Lie Du Jour.]

Desperation Camouflage.

http://www.businessinsider.com/reince-priebus-immigration-reform-rnc-steve-king-self-deportation-2013-8?op=1

[James D.]

Ext at 11:47 AM...

Just mind-boggling. Prebius is a...I don't want to use the sort of language that would properly describe him.

[12_666_cathyf_hates_typepad_72]

Apologies to John Wheeler:

Umpire Newton: I calls ‘em like I see ‘em.

Umpire Einstein: I calls ‘em the way they are.

Quantum-Mechanical Umpire: They ain’t nothing till I calls ‘em.

[Threadkiller]

It shocks me to the core to hear Priebus woo illegals.

I would have never called that one.

Let's blame Michael Steele.

[Captain Hate on an iPhone]

Priebus is getting roundly slattered @ AoS

[narciso]

Not nearly enough, though,

[centralcal]

Business Insider:

Correction, 12:26 p.m. ET: An original version of this story said that Reince Priebus referred to Mitt Romney's comments as "racist." He said it "hurts us." Business Insider regrets the error.

----------

ha ha - that didn't take long. Still, Reince stepped in it and will be hearing about it for a long time, I imagine.

[Dave (in MA)]

Rinsed Prius supposedly said "...obviously is HURTS us" and it was transcribed as "...obviously it's racist".
http://www.businessinsider.com/reince-priebus-immigration-reform-rnc-steve-king-self-deportation-2013-8#ixzz2c9P4YjKU

[MarkO]

Stop the presses. Apparently, Prebius did not say racist.

Resume internecine bloodletting. "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley,"

[centralcal]

Ah, but MarkO, he did say "horrific," so that is now the uproar du jour (until that, too, is retracted).

[Dave (in MA)]

s/is/it/

[MarkO]

As "horrific" as losing to the worst president in the last 100 years?

And, I supported him broadly.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane @ 10:00, yes.

[Threadkiller]

what did he really say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pXa2pK6sg

[MarkO]

TK, photoshopped.

[Threadkiller]

How embarrassing. That was supposed to be a tape of Preibus.

My mistake.

[Danube on iPad]

A family of grifters:

"Convicted Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) is scheduled to receive $8,700 per month in government disability pay, as well as a partial federal pension of $45,000. That generous $8,700 in disability comes thanks to Jackson’s sudden development of a 'mood disorder' as the federal government began looking to indict him. Jackson, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, had no history of mental illness during his prior 17 years in Congress. Rev. Jesse Jackson has defended his son’s claims of mental illness, stating to the court, 'This time a year ago I thought we may have lost him.'"

[Dave (in MA)]

Where do I apply to be officially declared to have a "mood disorder"? That's even more gravy than getting a no-show job when your last name is Bulger or the same last name as someone married to a Bulger.

[jimmyk]

Baseball does it right. The call is the call.

I mostly agree, but there are some umpires who let that power go to their head. They need to be disciplined, and reminded that they are not bigger than the game.

[NK]

JJ Jr? I am paying $145K to this thieving POS forever? This is effin' Exhibit A of the PRIMARY thing wrong with this country-- the Crony Elite and their welfare system. Fuck 'em all-- Congressional pensions should be revoked 100%, ALL disability payments to EVERYONE under 50yo should be suspended until they prove medical eligibility, SNAP payments should be cut 50% immediately pending program audits. fuck all the teat suckers and parasites, I am sick of them.

[Porchlight]

I mostly agree, but there are some umpires who let that power go to their head. They need to be disciplined, and reminded that they are not bigger than the game.

True. As you suggest, that is a personnel/management issue, not a structural one.

Speaking from the depths of a university bureaucracy, I despise when the rules/workflow/work assignments are changed for everyone because the organization is too cowardly to discipline or fire the individual(s) causing the problem. It's the rule not the exception around here.

[Some Guy]

Note to self: Don’t make an off the cuff remark then leave for a long period…

In a prior thread, I made the comment that when I first saw the situation room photo that it looked like it might have been photoshopped. Let me clarify, that I was just relating my first impression when I first saw the photo, not that I was actually saying it was a fake.

It isn’t photoshopped, because there wasn’t any pressure or external obligations for the WH to release any photo, and if one had been faked, he wouldn’t be made to look like a scolded child sent to the corner.

[Some Guy]

Is there anyone in Congress who *doesn't* have a mental disorder?

[NK]

Some Guy-- I found the Sit Room photo discussion interesting. Ultimately, I thought Porch had the best take.

[Threadkiller]

The Whitehouse is under no pressure to make the President appear competent and engaged.

[Jack is Back!]

Interesting discussion since I am currently writing a book about sport in 19th century Britain and America. Mostly of the evolution of cricket to baseball in America but also of how Britain was able to export the world games of football (soccer), Rugby and cricket. All 3 have their own World Cups.

In cricket there is the Decision Review System introduced a few years back. It is instant replay but with a much more accurate vernacular of its role. There is very good article on DRS and why baseball should think twice. I agree. an excerpt:

"As fans we tend to believe that perfect accuracy is, if not attainable, then at least highly desirable. Nobody likes an unfair call, unless it benefits your team. But using technology to solve the problem can be self-defeating. If the new technology changes how the game is played, then purity goes out the door anyway (sort of like a variation on the observer effect. As Lord demonstrates, a cricket match with DRS is entirely different from a cricket match without one. DRS (or, perhaps, instant replay in an American sport) enters the playing field via the psyches of the players and coaches, it becomes, like any other rule, an object of strategy, and a potential edge to exploit. Nothing is perfect, even machine-calibrated perfection."

Removing part of the human factor only dilutes the founding spirit of the game. I for one, in tennis, would like to get rid of linesmen and chair refs and leave all calls up to the players who get 3 replays each per set. Very similar to the way golf is officiated.

Might as well go all the way and have all sports played CGI or with Cyborgs.

[Some Guy]

I for one, in tennis, would like to get rid of linesmen and chair refs and leave all calls up to the players who get 3 replays each per set. Very similar to the way golf is officiated.

I agree. One of the things I appreciate most about golf is that it is one of the few venues that still utilizes and respects an honor code.

In a spectator sport like tennis, it would be hilarious for one competitor to consistently fudge his calls and get a rep for that.

[jimmyk]

The problem in tennis is that the player may not know, especially on the serve. A serve down the middle is easier for the server to see than the receiver. Same for a down the line shot. When I play a friendly game I'll ask my opponent if it was in or not. (I've stopped playing USTA leagues because of too many cheaters.)

[MarkO]

The polite way to say you missed the call in amateur tennis, is to ask your opponent if he is sure of his call. The rule is that you must call it good unless you clearly see it out.

[The Whole World Is Benefiting From His Cool Royal Highness Obama's Illustrious Presidency]

La, la, la, la, la, I can't hear you!

Lies, all lies.

Even if they're not lies, it doesn't matter. You're in the minority now.