On Monday, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons made the first unsuccessful challenge in baseball history.
Instant replay officially arrived in Major League Baseball on Monday as Blue Jays manager John Gibbons challenged a ruling on a 6-4-3 double play.
In the top of the sixth inning, Brett Lawrie hit a ball to Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar. He flipped to second base for the first out, and then Jorge Polanco fired the ball to first baseman Kennys Vargas. First base umpire Brian O'Nora called Lawrie out.
Gibbons emerged from the dugout, and after completing a lengthy discussion with the umpires, he decided to challenge that Vargas' foot was off the bag when he caught the throw.
Screen shot of umps on headsets eagerly awaiting ruling from replay central pic.twitter.com/YEVSG02hgy
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) March 3, 2014The umpires determined the call would stand as previously ruled.
The review officially took 2:34 to complete, according to Stark. He also noted that MLB's goal is for most reviews to take anywhere from 60-to-90 seconds, meaning today's review took about twice as long as Joe Torre wants.
Here is more on expanded replay in 2014, as well as how the challenges will work.
The plan, as it stands now, allows managers to challenge one call per game with the option to challenge an additional call if their first challenge is sustained according to Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal. Also, after the start of the seventh inning, the crew chief will be able to initiate a challenge on any reviewable play. There will also be eight new umpires to accommodate a replay command center stationed in New York which will handle all reviews. Joe Torre expects most reviews to take between one minute and 90 seconds.
The new challenge system will take some time getting used to, but in the end, it should result in the right call being made every time. That is something everyone can get behind, even if there are fears about changing the way baseball has done things for 130 years.