Selig: “Most baseball people are really against instant replay”
That quote is part of this ESPN.com story. Here’s the whole thing:
“It is interesting,” Selig said. “Most baseball people are really against instant replay. There’s no question about that. I could sense that the last three days [in talking to people].
“In the end, good or bad, I will do what I think is right. I’m going to take the responsibility for it. I’ve been at this the last 45 years of my life, and the last 18 [as commissioner], so I’ll trust my own judgment.”
Three questions:
1. Who the heck has Selig been talking to?
2. If Selig is going to trust his own judgment, why is he talking to anyone at all?
3. Isn’t trusting a single person’s judgment exactly what sparked this debate?
Oh, and:
4. Just who the heck has Selig been talking to?
Answer? The mirror.
forced retirement seems REAL good right about now…
18 YEARS!!! Seems like 18 DECADES!! Strike, Steroids, Wild card wi uneven scheduling resulting in a different schedule for ea team-THATS unfair, Inter league, Tied All Star game,Expos move-Loria, the architect of the Expos demise, gets ANOTHER team in FLA,Mitchell report…What have I missed
“Who the heck has Selig been talking to?”
Like he said… baseball people. In other words, old scouts, GM’s, managers—people who have also been in the game for 40+ years. He’s not listening to the fans, or the sportswriters, or the nerds who crunch numbers all day. That would be wrong of him, because the only people who matter are old guys who played baseball a long time ago.
Compare with FIFA President Sepp Blatter:
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Football’s world governing body has emphasised its objection to using technology to aid decisions on controversial incidents during matches, such as assisting referees in judging whether a ball has crossed the goal-line
Blatter says the fervour that comes with the sport would be damaged if science was introduced.
He added: “Then the science is coming in the game, no discussions, we don’t want that. We want to have these emotions, and then a little bit more than emotions, passion.”
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How ever these people get voted in to office nobody knows.
The FIFA one makes sense to me, if what the guy is really saying is: “We think we will make more money if we don’t have replay [because fans will be less emotionally invested if there’s replay].” Frankly, I doubt that’s true, but I might buy that you’d rather have more excitement and bigger celebrations than fairness.
It’s why we don’t have a college football playoff: money trumps all considerations of fairness.
Instant replay would increase the odds of a fair result. But baseball has shown a clear indifference to fairness. How else to explain a 5 game playoff round after an 162-game season. To paraphrase Kanye West, “Selig doesn’t care about fairness”.