MLB to expand instant replay
MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball is moving ahead with plans to expand instant replay next year. “We’re pretty confident we’ll have it in place for 2014,” MLB executive vice president Joe Torre said yesterday before the All-Star Game. Video review has been in place for umpires on home run calls since August 2008.
Commissioner Bud Selig initially wanted to add trap plays and fair-or-foul calls down the lines for 2013, but the change was put off while more radical options were examined. Still, Selig has wanted to proceed cautiously. “Look, life isn’t perfect. The sport isn’t perfect, but we live with it, and it’s been great,” he said yesterday during his annual meeting the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “We have to be careful in our zest to improve things not to affect the game as we’ve all known it.”
Part of a replay subcommittee that includes former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz, Torre has said all options are being considered, including an NFL-type system that would give managers the ability to challenge calls. He hopes to have plans for owners to consider when they meet next month in Cooperstown, N.Y. “We certainly don’t want to get stuck in the mud saying we’re not going to do anything when technology is out there saying that we can improve it somewhat,” Torre said. “We’ve got to decide, how much replay do we want? Because if you start doing it from the first inning to the ninth inning, you may have to time the game with a calendar.” Selig said the calendar was an issue in MLB’s refusal to make players available for the Olympics.
Baseball was an Olympic medal sport from 1992-2008, then was dropped for last year’s London Games. IOC president Jacques Rogge says baseball should make its top athletes available, as they are in basketball and hockey. The IOC will vote in September to select one sport from among baseball-softball, wrestling and squash to add to the 2020 Games. Stopping the baseball season for the Olympics is impractical. “First of all, we’d be playing to Thanksgiving, maybe Dec. 1,” Selig said. “It just isn’t possible. I wish it was.” Selig also repeated his concern about the Tampa Bay Rays, who are next-to-last in the major leagues with a home attendance average of 17,791 despite contending in the AL East. Selig called the situation “beyond disappointing” and “economically not tolerable.” “You look at a club in the major leagues that’s competitive that’s averaging 18,000 people a game.
That may have been OK in 1956. It’s not OK today,” he said. “There’s no question there’s a stadium problem there. There’s no debate about that. The question is what to do about it and when to do and where to do.” Selig repeated his intention to retire in December 2014 after 22 years in office but said there are no definitive succession plans. “I’ve always operated under the theory that if I get hit by a beer truck tomorrow, they’d have to find somebody,” he said. “Somehow, some way they’ll find somebody.” Noteworthy * Robinson Cano’s father said he expects his son will re-sign with the New York Yankees in the offseason instead of leaving for free agency.
“I think he is coming back,” said Jose Cano, a former major league pitcher. “I don’t think he is going to go anywhere else. Hopefully, he can stay here.” “I’m not saying anything about my contract,” said Cano, the starting second baseman in the All-Star Game, * Manny Ramirez will remain in the minor leagues when the Texas Rangers begin the second half of their season, sources told ESPNDallas.com. Ramirez will be back with Triple A Round Rock when the Express resume their Pacific Coast League schedule tomorrow at home after a 3-day All-Star break. The 41-year-old Ramirez last played in the majors in 2011, when he appeared in five games with the Tampa Bay Rays. He retired in April of that year after testing positive for elevated testosterone.
Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed he would serve a 50-game suspension, and Ramirez played in the minors for Oakland in 2012 before asking for his release in June.