All of the talk around baseball today has revolved around Jim Joyce's fudged up call costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game. This has really sparked the talk about expanding the use of instant replay in baseball. I am not completely against it but Tito is not a fan of the entire idea.
Francona was also quick to back umpires in general, saying, “We’ve got pretty good umpires, just sometimes everybody makes mistakes. That’s just kind of the way it is.”
He even conceded that there are times when he makes mistakes when arguing with umpires or times when he had himself to rely on replay to determine what the call should have been.
“There’s a lot of times when I’ve figured that if I had to go look at a replay to find out if I could tell, [I’d] better give that guy a bit of a break,” said Francona.
The Sox manager, however, stopped short of supporting an increase in instant replay in baseball. Although he has supported the use of replay on home run calls in the past, he mentioned that there is such thing as too much replay. “There has to be a line where you stop,” Francona said. “I think they’ve done a good job with instant replay.”
Major League Baseball will review the play and Bud Selig has the power to over turn the call. There is no question that Galarraga (who handled the situation with class) pitched a perfect game and deserves it, but there have been some more meaningful bad calls in the past.
In Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, with the Cardinals needing one win to celebrate and leading the Royals, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kansas City's Jorge Orta led off against St. Louis reliever Todd Worrell and grounded a slow roller to first. First baseman Jack Clark fielded the ball and tossed to the pitcher covering, and despite TV replays and photographs clearly showing Orta was out, Denkinger, above, ruled him safe.
