Replays have no place in baseball, except on TV

From the Seats, December 1, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - Instant replay has been talked about a little here and a little there in the baseball world. The question has been asked if baseball should join the other sports and have instant replay that umpires can refer to when making a call.

Without hesitation I say absolutely not. I big part of baseball is that human factor that comes into the game with the umpires. There is so much that can be reviewed, such as every strike or ball. It is bad enough the league has a system to review its umpires. Watch the game, the fans, and players can both clearly see what a strike is and determine for themselves if an ump is messing up the strike zone. Replays wouldn't fix that, its still a judgment call.

Home runs and foul balls are different, right? I don't think so, that same judgment is used and more times now the crews are getting it right. That's right, the crews are getting it right. If there is a questionable play, such as a home run being fair or foul the umpire crews have gotten together, see if anyone else had a better view, or saw something different. They talk it over and more times than not the past few years they have come out with the right decision.

Replays show they are right most of the time. But what about guys like Gery Davis who made multiple bad calls in a single game in 2003 at US Cellular, a game that included the Twins and White Sox in a time of the season where everything mattered. We were getting down to the nitty gritty and Gery Davis calls a clearly fair ball foul. Later in the series Davis made an out call where Koskie was clearly safe.

Replays again would not help any of this, but tapes should be used after games to show these umps they have goofed big time and they have ended up on my Umpire Blacklist!

Twins offer Radke $20 million over three years

MINNEAPOLIS - The Twins have upped their 2 years at $14 million up to 3 years at $20 million. That might be about $3 to $5 million short to keep Radke in Minnesota. As I have mentioned before, Benson was signed for 3 years for $22.5 million, that is about $7.5 million a year. That is nearly a million less than what Radke has been offered.

I will never feel bad for a ballplayer not getting an extra million. But I have to believe that if Radke cant make more than Benson here he wont stay, not when he can get more in just about every other city.

So when Radke, Koskie, and Santana all have to be signed this offseaosn something somewhere has to break. Not all these things can happen making everyone happy. 

The End of an era

NEW YORK - For the past 21 years Tom Brokaw has anchored the desk of "NBC Nightly News" and will end tonight, December 1. For the last time on Tuesday night Tom Brokaw signed off with his "Well see you back here tomorrow night" as he did is second to last sign off you could see him holding back the tears with a smile.

Tom Brokaw is going out on top of the ratings as. At 64 he has been the leader since 1997. Dan Rather who has announced he is leaving "CBS Evening News" is in last place in three way race.

Brian Williams will take over for Brokaw and will have some might big shoes to fill.

Brokaw wrote the best seller "The Greatest Generation" giving the name to the Americans who fought World War II.

I have watched both Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw over the years. On election nights I end up tuning into NBC. On September 11th I ended up watching all three major networks, as we were watching three different TV's at the same time. After some time I settled on Tom Brokaw, there was something about him that on that awful day he gave a slight feeling of what once was normal.

Dan Rather who is stepping down March 9th has not had a replacement named yet and will come in 2005.