Instant replay: A sure hit

Unless you have spent the last week in a cave, you've probably seen a replay or at least heard about it.\nOf course, I am talking about the non-out call on the White Sox's A.J. Pierzynski's strikeout in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Plays like this are why we need instant replay in baseball. \nAnd when I say we need, I mean starting next season. It is obviously too late to change the rule for the World Series, but after a call that might have cost the Angels the pennant, one would think Major League Baseball will have no choice but review its instant replay policy.\nI know a few of you are saying, "but the White Sox won the last three games, so it is a non-issue." I'm not knocking anything Chicago has accomplished in the ALCS, or the whole season for that matter, but let's just say for a moment Pierzynski is called out. And the Angels end up winning Game 2. They are up in the series 2-0 heading back to Los Angeles. Momentum would make it difficult for the White Sox to rebound from a deficit like that. But then again, anything is possible after the 2004 ALCS.\nSpeaking of the Red Sox-Yankees series, I would have thought baseball would have at least looked into introducing replay after what happened in Game 6 of last year's ALCS. If you remember, the umps had to hold a conference to get the correct call on two separate occasions during the game. \nThe first one gave the Red Sox's Mark Bellhorn, who until that point I had given the well- deserved nickname "Bellhorn the Rally Killer," a three-run home run in the fourth. \nThe second one took place in the eighth inning when A-Rod slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's hand. Both of these times the umpires ended up making the correct call, but what if they hadn't?\nIt would have added another chapter to the misery of Red Sox nation, the Curse of the Bambino would still exist and every time the Red Sox and Yankees met on Fox, Tim McCarver would continue to name drop the Bambino every chance he got. I would have thought this would have been enough to make MLB push for instant replay. Apparently I was wrong.\nBaseball purists' biggest argument seems to be that baseball has never had instant replay, so why have it now? That's the same argument used by those against the National Football League introducing instant replay a few years ago and I think for the most part, people will agree it hasn't hurt football. \nWe need to understand that umpires are human and will make mistakes. For the most part, umpires will make the correct call, but instant replay is to make sure somebody doesn't lose an important game on a call they should have gotten. \nMany times it takes big game controversy for a league to change its stance on something like replay. Game 2 of the ALCS provided that. Now hopefully baseball will learn from it.