The question about instant replay in baseball is rather a tricky one. There are certain advantages as well as disadvantages in the system. But since it has already been adopted as a regular feature of the game, there is nothing more that can be done about it. We can just hope that the advantages will be further enhanced and the disadvantages minimized.
Let us consider the advantages first. Unlike other sports, the game of baseball can be defined by a single bad call. If it is done wrong, it could cost a team their game. With the cameras looking over their shoulders, umpires would also become more alert and precise in their judgments. And with the speed of the instant replay systems improving constantly, implementing it in the game does not slow the game down in any way. Therefore, the advantages of instant replay in a baseball game are quite high.
On the negative side, if the instant replay facility is misused and implemented for every close call, it can considerably annoy the live spectators. Even though the speed of the system is being constantly improved, it needs to be developed even more to make things tolerable. There have been instances where it has taken 7 minutes for an instant replay. Seven minutes can never be called instant by any stretch of imagination. Giving too much importance to instant replays might undermine the role and efficiency of umpires. Fans might no longer want to trust their judgment anymore. I don’t mean that umpires don’t err. But overriding their decisions when the calls were too close for the human eye can affect their credibility.
So, there are…