I understand that officials call play-off games differently than they do regular season games, however, those decisions revolve around penalties, not around outcomes, and they are called that way in the interests of keeping the best players on the field to have a true contest of best vs. best as championship level sports should be, and to allow the players to dictate the pace of the game instead of the officials. What you are advocating is outcomes based prejudice which places an emphasis on have more cumbersome and involved officiating instead of less, which runs counter to your examples. The rough equivalent of what you are advocating translated to football, would be ruling Eli Manning "in the grasp" against the Patriots in the Super Bowl rendering his pass top David Tyree unthrown, or ruling Tyree's amazing catch incomplete in favor of giving the Patriots an undefeated season, which is an accomplishment far more rare, and far greater than any single individual accomplishment in baseball, simply because it was a more desirable and historic outcome. As to the bit about robots? Your statement about irony is horribly misplaced. It really wouldn't bother me one bit. Take that one up with the Umpire's Union, which has the strong backing of the Player's Union.
As far as your crazy notion about red flags and what not? Again, take it up with the Umpires Union, which still has the strong support of the Player's Union. You are advocating something that is unobtainable, and has been collectively bargained against. While I don't have any problem with the idea, everyone in a position of authority in the game does. You'll have to deal with them instead of a guy on the internet. If you want me to sign some sort of petition, however, I will.
To the last bit: Read what I wrote, not what you wanted to read. I don't advocate never making changes to the game simply because of tradition, even though baseball is strongly dependant on tradition and history as reference points. More so than in any other sport, and to deny that is lunacy. It is the reason 500 home runs, .300 lifetime batting average, 3000 hits, 300 wins, and 3000 strikeouts are regarded as sacred milestones. Trying to strip the game of it's tradition and history is to destroy what makes it Major League Baseball. However, if changes need to be made, I'm all for it, but never retroactive rules changes that alter the outcome of a game which has already been played. If we decide to have instant replay from this day forward, great. But we can't have instant replay from this day forward, and apply it to yesterday's games which were played under a different agreed on set of rules.
_________________ Quote: 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. Ezekiel 23:19-20
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