Baseball shelves instant replay talk till 2013

NEW YORK (AP) — Center fielder Curtis Grandersonraising his glove, hoping to convince an umpire that he made the catch. Jim Thome twisting his body, trying to coax a liner to kick up chalk.
Those tricky calls aren't being farmed out to technology quite yet.
Major League Baseball says expanded replay is out for this year, with the goal now to put the extra looks in play for 2013.
Baseball had sought to increase video reviews this season to include trapped balls, fair-or-foul rulings down the lines and fan interference all over the ballpark.
The additional replay required the approval of MLB and the unions representing the umpires and the players.
"We weren't able to come up with an acceptable set of agreements between the three parties," MLB executive vice president for labor relations Rob Manfred told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "We hope we'll be able to do it in time for the 2013 season." 

Instant replay is a tricky subject for me. I certainly think that it is needed in today's MLB. There is too much riding on every game for an ump to miss a call that could easily be fixed via replay. So far I think the umpires have done a good job of replay use. I can't think of a time where I found myself screaming at the TV to get back to the game because it was taking too long. Which is nice because I find myself screaming at the TV far too often - I don't need any add ons.

But instant replay does make me nervous. It needs to stop at catches, fair or foul balls and fan interference. Baseball would be in danger of losing a great deal of its mystique if it ever switched to a digital strike zone. The umpire, as well as the strike zone, have so much to do with baseball.
Everyone knows that outside pitch that's not a strike but the guy behind the plate has been calling it a strike all night. That's the beauty of the strike zone - it's never the same. A pitcher constantly has to work to get his calls. I've heard pitchers say countless times, "Yeah he didn't call it strike the first time so I threw in the same spot, only harder, and he finally saw it my way."

The strike zone forces pitchers to be consistent. I love it when a guy misses a spot so badly that even though it's a strike the ump calls it a ball. A digital strike zone would only breed laziness and robotic thoughts and actions. There's enough of that in sports already.