Sports column filled with ‘illogical’ statements

After reading David Blattman’s Con position of using instant replay for college baseball, I was concerned with an opinion piece containing so many inaccurate statements and illogical conclusions.

The big, bold opening of “”Instant replay cuts human judgment out”” is the first glaring example of how Blattman has it all wrong. I’m no baseball expert, but merely calling strikes, balls, checked swings, tags on base, and foul balls requires an immense amount of concentration and, yes, human judgment on the part of the umpires.

These examples still allow for questionable calls to be pushed one way or the other based on the viewpoint and judgment of the particular ump making the call. Also, his assertion that “”no play has a definite result”” is so strikingly false that I’m surprised it was included.

Rounding the bases after a home run is indeed a definite result because it happens every time the ball gets hit out of the field of play. The main reason instant replay is being considered and should be implemented is the controversy concerning botched home run calls that either mistakenly award a short hit, warning track blast and/or foul ball and incorrect calls that rob a player and team of a long shot jack and the run(s) that come with it.

If millions of people at home can see a home run at five different angles and judge based on video evidence, the least we can do is allow the umpires to take an extra minute before they make a game-altering call and change the outcome of an otherwise correctly called game.

Daniel Sotelo
political science junior