Yankees' Teixeira Voices Displeasure With MLB's Replay Rules
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The idea of replay is to get the calls on the field right, and so far Major League Baseball has done a pretty good job of doing just that.
However, there have been certain instances where plays have forced umpires into "gray areas," scenarios where a call simply cannot be reversed regardless of what appears to be obvious on the screen. It's a byproduct of a game like baseball, where so much of what you see is open to interpretation.
Take several examples during the Yankees' game at Tampa Bay on Sunday. First baseman Mark Teixeira took exception to three different calls.
The first happened following a long run-scoring drive by Brett Gardner in the top of the fourth. Though replay clearly showed the ball striking the wall before it ended up in the glove of Rays right fielder Wil Myers, the problem the umpires had was where to put Gardner, who was busting it around the bases and was well past second when the play went into question.
Gardner was eventually sent back to second and the Yankees ended up scoring just once in the inning.
They took that 1-0 lead into the seventh, but another questionable review helped the Rays tie the game in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees' Brian Roberts dropped a throw at second on what appeared to be a double-play grounder and everyone was ruled safe, even though it appeared Roberts had his foot on the bag and had control of the ball long enough. Tampa scored not long after to tie the game.
"The Gardner (play), I still think that should have been a home run because we're told to play through," Teixeira said. "The release transfer play is a silly rule, if you ask me. We've been playing the game for 100 years. You have to get used to seeing those kind of calls in a game. It kind of disrupts the flow a little bit."
Then in the 11th inning, Ichiro Suzuki's steal of second base was overturned, though replay appeared to show there was nothing conclusive to overturn the call on the field.
The Yankees finally put the game away in the 12th, scoring four times in an eventual 5-1 victory.
Examples like these are certain to continue to pop up as the season progresses, and will likely give MLB reason to refine the parameters of replay during the offseason.
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