THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN THURSDAY, AUGUST 28. 2008
SPORTS
3B
MLB
League finally relents on replays
BY RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Technicians look over computers and screens at the network operations center at MLB.com in New York on Wednesday. Umpires will be allowed to check video on home run calls starting today after Major League Baseball, guardian of Amerira's most traditional sport, reversed its decades-long opposition to instant replay.
NEW YORK — Baseball's repay center is an 18-by-24 foot room on the fifth floor of a former baking factory in Manhattan's Meatpacking District that's crammed with so many computers and television screens that it looks like NASAs Mission Control.
Five monitors stretch across the top of the wall, and beneath are eight 46-inch screens split into two rows. Each television can show one picture, or be split into nine, 16, 25 or 100 angles at once.
In the third row are two white Macintosh computers with 19-inch screens, each adjacent to a 26-inch TV. And, finally, below that are dozens of buttons on a router panel. Some are blue, some green, some red, some yellow. This is where the technicians and supervisors will sit.
The room is called the NOC — the Network Operations Center for MLB.com. It's where video from the 30 major league ballparks is already being collected, and will be made available to umpires starting today to help them with home-run calls. Technicians can zoom in on replays, run them at any speed.
"Pretty soon, we'll wonder how we got along without it, and we won't even be noticed." Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, said as reporters got a tour Wednesday.
Baseball spent $2.5 million and two months installing fiberlink lines, monitors and dedicated telephones to link every ballpark with the NOC. Major League Baseball Advanced Media will now collect both teams' video feeds from each game and send them here.
For the 20 to 30 games each year with no telecast, MLBAM already is sending its own production truck, with six to eight cameras. And just in case there's a power failure at the NOC, the control room has emergency battery power just behind the wall and a generator on the roof with at least 12 hours of fuel.
The transformation is dramatic for a site where Oreos, Mallomars and Animal Crackers used to be cooked up — and the change is about as radical for MLB.
Baseball was the last replay holdout among the major U.S. professional leagues, one so conservative that National League president Len Coleman chastised umpire Frank Pulli for consulting a monitor in May 1999 before awarding Florida's Cliff Floyd a double rather
than a home run in a game against St. Louis.
"You can slow a picture down so much that you can see the grains of sand and the clay around the bag. You can see whether or not a person has shaved that day," Solomon said. "The commissioner has come around and he's embraced it, because the technology is undeniable. I'm sure there was a time when all of us watched baseball on black and white TVs. Now I bet you everybody in the room has a high-def TV."
For now, umps can use replays to aid decisions only on whether potential home runs cleared fences, were fair balls or were interfered with by fans. MLB estimates it will take 2 minutes, 30 seconds for replays to be reviewed, and that so
far this year about 18 calls would have sparked video checks.
If a similar botch were made today, there would be an outcry for commissioner Bud Selig to expand the use of replay.
Solomon said MLB will never expand the types of decisions replays can be used for. But what happens if there's a blown call on the bases in the postseason, such as when Don Denkinger called Kansas City's Jorge Orta safe in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series? It gave the Royals a leadoff runner, and they overcame a one-run deficit to win the game, then went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7.
"The commissioner has been very clear. We're not going any farther than we've gone," Solomon said.
NFL
Brady, Manning might not meet in re-match
BY TOM CANAVAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Don't bother looking for an emotional Super Bowl rematch when the New York Giants and the New England Patriots meet in their preseason finale at Giants Stadium on Thursday night.
The starters won't be on the field either long enough or at all for anyone to get too wound up.
And to be blunt, the only thing players are concerned about is leaving the game healthy as they look forward to their regular-season openers.
loss to the Giants in the title game, open at home against Kansas City on Sept. 7.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is a question mark for the game because of a training-camp long injury to his right foot. Eli Manning and the Giants' first-team offense are going to be on the field for 10 plays.
Friday closes the preseason schedule and features Denver at Arizona, San Diego at San Francisco and Oakland at Seattle.
"It is a waste," Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce said of the preseason finale. "We don't need to be playing these games. Obviously you see in the league that guys are getting hurt. You don't need to play. Obviously with us having a long season last year, going to the Super Bowl, playing more games in the preseason and having a risk of injuries is not smart."
The Super Bowl champion Giants (1-2) kick off a week from Thursday in a nationally televised game against the Washington Redskins. The Patriots, whose only blemish last season was their 17-14
In other preseason action Thursday, Detroit at Buffalo, New York jets at Philadelphia, Cincinnati at Indianapolis, Jacksonville at Washington, Atlanta at Baltimore, Carolina at Pittsburgh, Chicago at Cleveland, Tennessee at Green Bay, Minnesota at Dallas, Tampa Bay at Houston, Miami at New Orleans and St. Louis at Kansas City.
The foot injury has prevented Brady from playing in the preseason, which explains to a great extent the Patriots' 0-3 record.
New York is particularly concerned about injuries after losing two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Ummyiora to a season-ending knee injury last week against the jets.
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Royals' Jose Gullen swings for the game-winning RB1-single off Oakland Athletics' Huston Street in the tenth inning of a baseball game on July 30 in Oakland, Calif. The Royals won the game four-3, sweeping the three-game series from Oakland.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Highest-paid Royal must 'remain focused'
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Royals general manager Dayton Moore said he met with Jose Guillen after the outfielder confronted a heckling fan Tuesday night.
"It's an unfortunate situation. It really is," Moore said Wednesday. "Jose has got to remain focused to what happens on the baseball field. It is certainly inappropriate to engage in any conversation with the fans during a game. You need to ignore it and respond in a way that doesn't draw attention to yourself. We'll just continue to work with Jose about managing what he says and how he responds. It is something we continue to manage."
Guillen had to be restrained by catcher Miguel Olivo, third-base coach Luis Silverio and others when a fan down the right field line harassed him in the fourth inning of a 2-1 loss to the Texas Rangers.
This is Guillen's fourth public outburst this season. He has called his teammates "babies" during a 12-game losing streak in May, has made profanity-laced comments in June saying he could "care less about" fans who were booing him, and has had to be separated from pitching coach Bob McClure on July 5 in a clubhouse confrontation in Tampa Bay.
"The fans have a right to act and say things as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of the other fans". Moore said. "Hopefully, it gets to the point in a society where fans don't accept rude behavior."
Guillen, who at $12 million per season is the highest paid player in franchise history, entered Wednesday hitting .249, but led the club with 17 home runs and 80 RBIs.
"I understand who I am and the money that I'm making," Guillen said.
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