I was pleasantly surprised by how little time the two video replays took to complete in yesterday's game against the D-Backs.
Pair of calls upheld by replay in Padres-D-backs game | padres.com: News
"That was a critical part of the game," Black said.
Apparently the first challenge, in which Paul Goldschmidt was called out when Tommy Medica beat him to first base in a bang-bang play, only took 2 minutes 34 seconds. That seems like a lot of time if you're makin' sweet love, but in a baseball game that's practically no time at all. It's all relative.
As a TV viewer sitting on my couch, I didn't think it slowed down the pace of the game at all. TV viewers are usually treated to replay after replay on close calls like that one anyway. Sure, the TV replays usually happen between pitches of the next batter but what is lost in game momentum is more than made up for with the added level of suspense. Watching all the different views of the play knowing that the call could possibly be overturned is great theater.
@heyscan and it looks like they got the call wrong.
— Gaslamp Ball (@gaslampball) March 9, 2014Personally I think the umpires got the first call wrong, even with the replay. It appeared that Goldschmidt was the first to first base. It would have been nice if the umpires had said definitively whether they think Medica recorded the out or they just didn't have enough information to overturn the original call.
@sdutPosner@heyscan Yeah it was probably too close, but it looked like Goldschmidt made contact first unless Media tapped with his heel.
— Gaslamp Ball (@gaslampball) March 9, 2014*Medica
It'll be interesting to see if the replay time is an annoyance when I'm actually sitting in the stands, without the benefit of watching the replays. I somehow doubt it. I think it'll be very similar to when umpires gathered and discussed their calls in the olden days.
So far so good.