Stark: Former umps chief on replay: ‘Let’s go’

Yeah…go and buy myself a boatload of freakin’ Ficklin Vintage Port.

But one person who checked in—via seven different emails—really, really, really got my attention.

That would be Mike Port. The same Mike Port who spent six years (2005-11) as baseball’s vice president of umpiring after a long career as a general manager and executive for the Angels, Red Sox and Padres.

And his response to yet another year’s delay in utilizing a technology the NFL first tapped into 27 years ago could be summed up in two words:

“Let’s go.”

Why, he wondered, did baseball spend massive amounts of money over the past two years studying ways to review calls that almost never happen—fair/foul and trap/catch? Excellent question.

“Any CLUB employee could give one an estimate as to how many times (in a season) they had seen an incorrect call on fair/foul or an incorrect call on a trap/catch,” Port wrote. “The answer: DAMN FEW. Out of about 22,000 regular-season innings generally played, there might be 3-6 such occurrences annually LEAGUE-WIDE. So what does baseball do? Negotiates expanding replay to cover such plays.”

...“Let’s go,” Mike Port wrote. “Baseball moves at Neanderthal speed in too in many of its undertakings.”

Hey, ya think? Once, not so long ago, Port said, he was opposed to replay in baseball, too. But he has spent the past few years studying the NFL and come to a simple conclusion: They get it. Baseball, on the other hand? Not so much, he’s decided.

So …

“It’s time,” he said, “for baseball to move into the 19th century and show some responsiveness to its fans.”