INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Baseball is considering a broader expansion of video review for umpires than first discussed.
Instant replay in baseball began in August 2008 and has been limited to checking whether potential home runs were fair or cleared over fences. Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has been saying since early 2011 he wants to expand it to two additional types of calls.
“He was talking about really basically fair-foul, trap plays. But we’re looking into more than that,” Joe Torre, MLB’s executive vice president for baseball operations, said Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings.
Torre did not detail what types of calls a broader expansion might include.
MLB experimented with the Hawk-Eye animation system that is used to judge line calls in tennis and the TrackMan radar software used by the PGA Tour during tests late this year at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
“We still have some questions on the way it is now, if that’s going to fit with baseball,” Torre said. “I’m not saying it can’t be adjusted or they can do something (that) would make it work for our game.”
He pointed out tennis courts are smaller than baseball fields.
“It’s easier to cover as opposed to what we have,” he said.
Depending on what baseball decides, changes might have to be negotiated with the umpires’ and players’ unions.
Selig has said he hopes to have wider replay in 2013.
“I know what the commissioner said, that he expects it to be done, but again, he relies on us,” Torre said of the staff.
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi called for wider use of replay after second base umpire Jeff Nelson blew a call at second base in Game 2 of the AL championship series, leading to an argument and Girardi’s ejection. Nelson admitted he blew the call on the play, which should have ended the eighth inning before Detroit expanded its lead from one run to three. The Tigers won 3-0 and swept the Yankees.
