As many of you may know our beloved Red Sox have made it to the World Series yet again. During the third game of the series at Busch Stadium, home of the opposing St. Louis Cardinals, Boston third baseman Will Middlebrooks found himself in the middle, pun intended, of a controversial call. He fell to the ground diving for a baseball while the runner on third base was attempting to advance on the hit for the game-winning run. Middlebrooks did not get up, resulting in the runner tripping over his body. The umpire, Jim Joyce, ruled Cardinals baserunner Allen Craig safe, calling Middlebrooks for “obstruction.”

Such a call had never been made in a World Series, let alone ended a game. This left the public questioning whether the right call had been made and whether or not Jim Joyce was in the correct positioning to make such a call in the first place. Such an argument yields the questions of whether or not managers should have the chance to challenge calls within the game, similar to the NFL, or whether all calls should just be made with a computer in order the attain the correct outcome.

Adding technology into the baseball world, which has survived so many years on pure individual judgment, is very tricky. If we cross the line into adding technology now, then when will we draw the line to stop? One can argue that just like in the job market, as workers lost jobs due to technological advances in factories, umpires will lose jobs to instant replay and the implementation of other new technology. Jim Joyce may have made a controversial call, but, right or wrong, it is the players’ jobs to put their heads down and live with the outcome. Instead various MLB managers and players cry and whine to the media about how the umpires made a bad call.

Being a catcher on the club baseball team, I deal with umpires very closely throughout games. It is a routine for me to familiarize myself with each umpire and their nuances when it comes to calls on the base paths, strictness and strike zone. I relish in the fact that our game can potentially vary based on my relationship with said umpires. However, if machines are brought in to judge and review every play, this humane aspect of a “relationship” gets thrown out of the window. We are left expecting the perfect outcome which, I believe, makes us spoiled.

The game of baseball is not only a national pastime, but it is also a unique game in that everything is totally controlled by the judgment of people. Those same people should be allowed to make occasional mistakes. After all, the game itself is built upon failure. On average, a great hitter only succeeds a third of the time. Therefore I believe instant replay and technology should be left out of baseball. As fans we need to accept it and enjoy the game for its purity and human aspects of failure and risk.

Dennis Topakov is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected].