Remember how Baseball purists and haters alike whined about how replay will drastically slow down the game? Well, if Opening Day was any indicator, those people were dead wrong.
Opening Day 2014 had a total of 5 replay reviews to challenge calls–the last one being called by the umpires themselves. Two ended up being overturned, and ranged in times from 58 seconds to review and the longest 2 minutes 30 seconds.
The importance in all of this is how we can now debunk all the ‘it’ll slow the game down’ myths, and concentrate on the bigger picture, getting the call right the first time. Umpires don’t want to look bad, so now the use of replay helps to keep everyone on their toes at all times.
The human element will always remain–lest they replace umps with cyborgs, so Baseball purists, breathe. The game can only get better.
[Deadspin]