Art or Science?

No, this is not about academics. It's about the play I saw last night during the Yankees / Indians game. It's a ground ball to short- he fires to first and the call is safe. Well, from the moment I saw it, I didn't think that was right. After about 5-8 replays (thanks to the wonder of TV), I saw that the call was incorrect: the ball was in the glove and the foot on the bag before the runner reached first. I don't think there was much uproar about the play and the game continued. Now what if the ump could have made the right call? Or reviewed the play and corrected his first call on the play?

I have never really questioned the idea of using technology to make the right call. It took reading an article about the idea of my long-time favorite sport- soccer - being changed with the aid of technology. The hope: offsides will now be called correctly. I was outraged! The game does not need to be changed. The game is played by humans and officiated by humans- it will not be perfect- but that's what makes it good! It's those moments that you can get involved with the game by yelling at the official along with the times you celebrate with your team that make sports worth watching.

Sports are not based on rules. The rules should be used to keep the game clean or interesting (ie. 24 second shoot clock), not to control the flow and purpose of the game. Sports are art and art is not contained by strict rules!