Is it time to give the Baseball Manager a challenge flag?

Is it time to give the Baseball Manager a challenge flag? I think maybe it is, I was flipping to the Yankee/Seattle game during the commercial breaks in the Brewers game. And I happened to land on that game when an umpire basically gave the game to the Mariners

It was in the top of the 8th and the score was Evil Empire up 2-1 Vidro singles with two outs and is pinch run for by Bloomquist.

Bloomquist takes off trying to steal 2nd and Posada had him dead to rights the 2nd basemen tagged Bloomquist on his ass as he slid by. But the Ump had a terrible angle looking at the bag from behind the runner, the runner was like an arrow pointing at 2nd base. The Ump calls him safe but the replay showed he was at least a foot from the bag it was not even close. There was nothing bang bang about it the Ump just blew it. So now Seattle has a runner on second with 2 outs. You know what happened next Johjima singled to right and Bloomquist scored from 2nd game tied.

So the bad play actually changed the outcome of the game you know I hate the Yankees and I actually got an RBI since I have Johjima in my fantasy league but I could not help but think why do we accept bad calls like that in this day and age. There was a pick off in the Braves game that was almost as blatant the replay showed the Ump was very wrong on that call also.

I am not saying unlimited challenges or double check every pitch but why not give the Managers one or two chances a game to ask for a review, its not like baseball is a game where they do not stop action for damn near any reason already. I mean they do it in football they do it in basketball hell in basketball the refs police themselves using the court side monitors to see if a player had a foot on the line on the 3 point arch etc. Hockey also uses video to make sure they got the call right on goals.

Umps are human they make mistakes I would not allow any type of ball and strike challenge just plays in the field, was he touching the bag, did the ball hit the line etc. I guess when the mistake is a bad as yesterdays play and it actually changes the outcome of a game something needs to be done. The tech is already in place put a monitor in one of the dugs outs and if there is a challenge the head ump and the ump who made the call take a look so they can both see if the play was blown. Then they can reverse the call and get it right.

Any thoughts or ideas on this my only problem is do you have a penalty for asking for a challenge and losing like in the NFL where you lose a timeout. Or do you treat it like the NBA and Hockey and just figure it is worth it to get it right.

For that matter would you allow the Umps to ask to look on close play if they chose too?

I am sure E and Paul will give me a million reasons why this wont work and I know blown calls are part of the game and have been for over a 100 years but we used to use leeches in medicine too.

So everyone speak up lets solve one of baseballs problems in an afternoon ;)

Lets Get It Right
Chris