It's Official. MLB Needs Instant Replay

Last night one of the biggest missed calls in Major League Baseball History happened in Detroit.  Most of you know the story; Armando Galarraga was one out away from the 21st perfect game in baseball history when Jim Joyce called the runner at first safe.  After numerous replays it was clear that Donald was out at first and the backlash started.

Now I'm not going to sit here and trash Jim Joyce, it is not necessary and many people have already done it.  Joyce is human and he made an honest mistake. Everybody makes mistakes and there is no reason to continue to harp on that aspect of last night's game.  The one thing that I did want to talk about was why having more instant replay in baseball would not be a bad thing.

Click "more" to find out why.

Most baseball purists would say replay would make the game worse and slow down an already slow game.  However, isn't it more important to get the call right? If MLB had replay we would be talking about how we just witnessed the 3rd perfect game in 4 weeks, instead we are talking about how the perfect game was stolen away from this kid.  And of course putting in instant replay there has to be some guidelines:

1) No replays on balls and strikes 2) Each manager gets 1 challenge, and 3) Game changing plays and home runs should be the only plays reviewed other than challenges.  Now granted this game in the long run wont affect either teams season. Detroit still won, but history could've been made.  And what if this was the third out of a playoff clinching win that cost that team the game or series (1985 World Series)?  The bottom line is this; will instant replay make the games longer? Probably. But aren't you willing to sit there another 10-15 minutes if you are able to witness something like a perfect game? The saddest thing is that Armando Galarraga had a perfect game taken away from him before the instant replay discussion even came up.