* Going to the tape

Is it just me, or has there been a surprisingly small amount of outcry from baseball traditionalists (aka, old folks like me), objecting to the use of instant replay in baseball?

MLB instituted the practice this week, using it primarily for home runs. Seems someone high up on the food chain was tired of too many blown calls.

Bruce Weber, in this Sunday Times “Week in Review” column, lays the blame on — who else — television. After all, it gives them a chance to show off their technology.

[…] the use of technology in officiating is about television and money. Television, after all, is responsible for sports’ having become such a mammoth industry, bringing the games relentlessly into peoples’ homes, not to mention paying for domed stadiums and artificial surfaces, things that can be said to have damaged the integrity of sports, especially baseball, a lot more than officials’ miscalls.

Watch any Mets game and you’ll see, after practically every pitch, at least one replay of the swing or ball taken by the batter. If there’s a play in the field, you can bet there will be at least two replays from different angles. And if there’s a close play, you can see it up to half a dozen times at different angles, magnificantions, and speeds.

Weber, by the way, makes sure to mention his upcoming project:

And because last week was baseball’s week to go high-tech, as someone who has just completed a book about umpires and umpiring, I’ll ask: Does baseball deserve this? Aren’t umpires the officials that most deserve a pass?

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I wonder Weber would have published this column if he didn’t have a book in the background.

Anyway, what are your pet peeves about “innovations” to the game? For me, topping the list is the omnipresent “body armor” worn by the batters, allowing them to stand closer to the plate with less fear of injury and thereby changing the way pitchers go about their job. Why are they allowed to wear this stuff. It’s one thing if it’s to protect an injury, but you can’t tell me all these athletes have bad ankles, elbows, hands, etc. Show me a doctor’s note.

This phenomenon is followed closely by the way starting pitchers are used, earning kudos if they manage to go all the way to the seventh inning.