This will be some work in progress. Although the 'get it right' aspect sounds good....how do it work?
On foul balls and home runs, play stops (not technically "stopped" on home runs, but you know what I mean). How are the umpires supposed to determine what would have happened?
I mean, you can correct a home run call that was originally rule hitting the wall or correct a foul call that was originally rule fair, but reversing those calls would be a problem:
Change a call from home run to no home run. Do they rule it a ground rule double? Depending on where the ball caroomed, the batter may have gotten a triple or even an inside-the-park home run had the home run call not caused him to to stop running as hard (ooops, watch out BJ
). Instant replay could wind up with an equally "wrong" outcome, just penalizing a different team.Changing a foul ball to a fair ball. Currently, the batter is going to stop running once it's signaled foul (also any base runners). If they are going to award the batter a ground rule double on this one, I see less of a problem with it, as most balls on the line are at least doubles, and the offense will at least get some justice. On the rare occasions where the runner may have gotten only a single, giving the batter an extra base seems less of a penalty to the defense than the incorrect foul call was to the offense.
In the grand scheme of things, this will impact relatively few games, and will probably avoid some of the recent injustices....but there are some serious wrinkles to be ironed out!
Whaddayathink?