Now Hear This

[G-Fafif]

MLB catching up to other professional leagues in having its officials explain their calls.

Umpires will be equipped with microphones to inform crowds in the ballparks and the viewing audience at home of instant replay reviews, Major League Baseball announced Friday. Beginning with exhibition games this weekend, crew chiefs will wear a microphone to announce when a play is being challenged and what is being challenged and reviewed. When a team issues a challenge, the umpire will proceed to either baseline and face the press box to make the announcement, prior to communicating with the replay official in New York. After reviews are completed, the crew chief will return to the same spot to make a post-review announcement of the ruling and any changes to the placement of runners. This system, which will be similar to the one used by NFL officials, will also be used when a crew chief review is initiated without a prompt from either dugout (typically, on potential home run reviews). In those instances, the crew chief will also jog to the baseline to make the announcement.

https://www.mlb.com/news/umpires-to-announce-replay-reviews-to-fanshttps://www.mlb.com/news/umpires-to-announce-replay-reviews-to-fans

[MFS62]

Listening to WFAN (or was it ESPN?)this morning around 9 AM and when the update guy made this announcement, one of the hosts asked, "Has Angel Hernandez retired or is he still umpiring?"



When I heard the announcement, I had the exact same thought.



Later

[kcmets]

=G-Fafif post_id=88071 time=1648831080 user_id=55]
MLB catching up to other professional leagues in having its officials explain their calls.

[Edgy MD]

Hopefully, it will lead to some high-quality descriptive narrative.



[media=youtube]FKiuLgmYVus[/media]

[seawolf17]

Not for nothing, but they should have been doing this for years. And yeah, it would be good to get some actual narrative. "The catcher had possession of the ball, but did not touch the runner's trailing leg until after his arm had already touched the plate." Nice and easy.

[Edgy MD]

"Baserunner wasn't that far out of the line, but he didn't slide until after he had reached the bag, and it's totally the sort of jerky thing he might do."



"Pitcher threw the bat fragment at the runner. He claims he was just tossing it aside. But he really put some oomph into the throw and seemed to be laser-locked on the batter-runner when he did it. He's being ejected from the game for this infraction and probably suspended from the remainder of the series, just for the common good. God bless America."