by Fitzgerald Cecilio

MLB Team Owners Approve Expanded Replay to Correct Missed Calls
Credit: Keith Allison (flickr.com/photos/keithallison/)

Major League Baseball team owners have approved the expansion of replay to correct missed calls, a move hailed by commissioner Bud Selig as "historic".

"I am very pleased that instant replay will expand to include additional impactful plays," Selig said in a statement. "The new system will give managers valuable recourse in potentially game-changing situations."

"The opportunity for our fans to see more replays in our ballparks is also an important modification that the clubs and I favored," he added.

The new system, which will go into effect this season, will give managers most of the power to trigger reviews, by providing them with one challenge per game.,A second potential challenge will be given if their first one is upheld.

After a manager has used up all of his challenges, and only from the seventh inning on, would umpires be authorized to initiate a review on their own.

For the first time, calls at first base, at the plate and on the bases will be reviewable. There will be limited exceptions, including the fabled "neighborhood play" at second base.

MLB executive Tony La Russa, one of the architects of the new system, estimated that almost 90 percent of all potential calls are now reviewable.

However, La Russa clarified that the sport won't get every call correct but the goal was to eliminate what he called "the dramatic miss" that has changed game outcomes in the past.

"We're really [targeting] the dramatic miss," La Russa said, "not all misses."

The vote has been made after baseball officials negotiated late deals with the Major League Baseball Players Association and with the Major League Umpires Association.

Meanwhile, new rules governing home-plate collisions were not approved by owners because baseball still hasn't agreed with the players' union on the wording of those new rules.

However, MLB's COO, Rob Manfred, said enough progress has been made that "we fully expect to make an agreement with the union on home-plate collisions.

 

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"MLB Team Owners Approve Expanded Replay to Correct Missed Calls"