Who decides whether it should be reviewed? Who reviews it? How long does it take?

But for Ruth's sake, don't don't don't change it midseason!

Isn't there supposed to be a MLB official monitoring the game from New York?

This is a good move, overall. Provided that the assurances that King mentioned can be made irrevocable, unalterable, irreversible, unchangeable, permanent, etc. Would hate to see an Eric Gregg Marlins-Braves playoff game fiasco lead to Ques Tec calling balls and strikes.

The August 1 start date is likely in place to give the system a trial before the post season. Having announced that they are going to do this, MLB has to go forward for this season; you'd hate to have a spate of controversy-tinged home runs in the 2008 post season, without the official ability to correct miscalls.

Okay, King - I can let it slip that you didn't mention the Lakers beating the Celtics in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to stay alive; after all, the Celts still hold a dominant upper hand in the series, with the last 2 games on their home court.

BUT: even if you're not a golf fan, how could you ignore what is arguably Tiger's most impressive major win ever this weekend at the U.S. Open...in order to talk about, ummm, an MLB rule (made necessary...yes, necessary...by the current crop of dumb umps) that doesn't even take effect until Aug. 1st?

Even if you ascribe to the "*yawn* ho-hum, another Woods / Federer win of another tournament" attitude, as some in the sports business (fan or otherwise), you have to acknowledge that the way the Open played out - 19 extra playoff holes between a 45 y.o. never-was (Rocco Mediate) looking to slay the monster of the sport, all transpiring in nail-biting fashion - was pretty newsworthy, no? Anyone??

Official scorers could look at regular TV replays. And the official scorers could consult with the umps by cell phone.

Some parks are trickier than others. In Comerica Park (Detroit), we have a railing above the top of the outfield walls. If a hit bounces back off the railing, it's supposed to be a homer. Do any parks still have just a yellow line on their walls? Where balls that hit above the line are homers?

I don't have a problem with MLB using replay to check if a home run was actually a home run or not. It's not really stopping play since the game pretty much stops with a home run already, and having watched a few games from seats that look right down a foul line, it can be really hard to tell from some angles if a ball went foul before the pole or after. I remember one game at Wrigley where those of us sitting behind home plate were vicious to the umpire because it looked to us like the ball hit by a member of the Rockies went foul before the pole, but when I stopped at a bar on my walk home, replays showed it was clearly a home run that curved around the right field foul pole. I felt slightly bad for the ump, not not overly so.

But for those stadiums that have a home run line, I really wish they would have designed those stadiums so a ball leaves the field of play for a home run. Tampa Bay seems terrible in this regard. A decent stadium should include a wall a ball can clear, and ground rules that note that any ball that clears the wall in fair territory is a home run, and any ball that comes back on the field of play is not.

King makes a perfect point. It's the newfangled walls. Walls behind walls, stupid angles, and varying fence heights which make the homer call much more difficult than it was a decade or two ago.

Look at Fulton County, Three Rivers, Veterans Stadium and Riverfront Stadium. The only debate was whether a ball was fair or foul.

Get the call right.

It really sucks when you hit a bomb and you don't get credit for it.

And when they make a mistake they only make it worse by insisting they're right.

It's especially needed in those goofy ballparks like Minute Maid Park (nee Enron Field), where they paint lines on the wall and expect umps to tell which balls touch above or below. That's playground stuff.

Call me paranoid, but I can't get over the fear that today's MLB, the MLB of the 3 a.m. Opening Day, of the ridiculously unbalanced interleague schedule, of "this time it counts," will not be content with limiting Instant Replay to home-run balls. Unless Selig and his gang are stopped, every single controversial call will lead to a hue and cry to expand video review. To double plays. To plays at first. To stolen bases, checked swings. To BALKS, fer cryin' out loud!

Already there is talk of applying video review to any play involving a run scored. That potentially means scrutinizing the tapes after every sacrifice fly to make sure the runner did not leave third base a hundredth of a second before the outfielder caught the ball.

If you think such a nightmare scenario can't happen, remember that exactly the same type of thinking led to us taking off our shoes and having our shampoo confiscated at the airport. Those who quest for absolute certainty (the perfectly moral society, the perfectly secure state, the undoubtedly deserving champion) form a very powerful enemy to all things messy and debatable and human, which we underestimate at our peril.

Get rid of the painted lines. That's not fair to anybody, players or umps.

How bad do you think Tiger messed up his knee playing 5 rounds right out of the gate?

The Celtics are the better team. There, I think that about covers everything.

I am curious what form an assurance against the slippery slope would take. MLB is a club with thirty members. Neither King nor I are among them. They can change the rules to anything they want. How exactly are we expecting them to constrain their future actions?