MLB approves limited use of instant replay

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has finally agreed to approve instant replays in Major League Baseball, but only for disputed home runs. The general managers of the various MLB clubs actually approved it 25-5 last year, but there were delays getting it approved by the unions for the umpires and players.

Instant Replay will begin being available with the start of this weekend’s series for each team, with Minnesota visiting Oakland, the Angels hosting the Rangers and the Phillies starting their four game series against the Cubbies at Wrigley Field all of Thursday. All other teams will begin using the replays as of their games on Friday.

After this year’s World Series is over they will revisit the matter and see if they want to continue using it for the future, and in what form.

This would have been handy for a call back on 29 July when there was a question whether Casey Blake’s shot to the left field wall in the bottom of the sixth inning as a double or a home run. At least calls like that for the rest of this season will be a little easier to answer. I hope.