Here’s the problem with instant replay in baseball. It won’t make the difference that everyone thinks it will.

Take the Doug Eddings call. The problem wasn’t that he got the call wrong – if indeed he got it wrong. The problem was that he didn’t make a call at all.

See had he said it was a caught ball – inning over. If he said that it was not a caught ball, then Josh Paul tags A.J. – inning over. But he intimated as if it were a caught ball, then said, “No, I didn’t make a call.”

Now, if instant replay were involved, what would happen? Well, it wasn’t 100% conclusive, so the play on the field would have to stand. Which means A.J. would have to stay on first. So it’s not instant replay that would solve the problems. It’s having umpires who do their job.

There’s nothing wrong with umpires who make mistakes. They’re human too. But the problem I have with Eddings was that he couldn’t answer questions about the mistake. If he had said, “It was a mistake, I blew it.” I could accept that. If he had said, “It was not a caught ball in my opinion, and Josh Paul should have made sure I was calling the runner out,” I could accept that too. But to respond with, “Well, I don’t know how you can be sure it was a caught ball,” and “I was waiting to see what Josh Paul was going to do,” that’s unacceptable! He has to take charge. That’s his job. He has to be clear.

And for the league to back him up with, “Well, the umpire is not required to make a definitive out call,” is unacceptable too. There’s no way Eddings should have been back umpiring in the next game. Not because it was in Anaheim, not because he made a mistake, but because he couldn’t properly explain his actions. The league dropped the ball on this one, no pun intended.