Umpires can check the videos of HR calls

NEW YORK (AP) — Replay ball!

Umpires will be allowed to check video on home run calls starting Thursday after Major League Baseball reversed its decades-long opposition to instant replay.

“Like everything else in life, there are times that you have to make an adjustment,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said following Tuesday’s announcement. “My opposition to unlimited instant replay is still very much in play. I really think that the game has prospered for well over a century now doing things the way we did it.”

The 74-year-old Selig, who described himself as “old fashioned” and an admirer of baseball’s “human element,” softened his opposition following a rash of blown calls this year.

For now, video will be used only on so-called “boundary calls,” such as determining whether fly balls went over the fence, whether potential home runs were fair or foul and whether there was fan interference on potential home runs.

“Any time you try to change something in baseball, it’s both emotional and difficult,” Selig said. “There’s been some concern that, well, if you start here, look what it’s going to lead to. Not as long as I’m the commissioner.”

Replay will go into use with three series scheduled to open Thursday: Philadelphia at the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota at Oakland and Texas at the Los Angeles Angels. For other games, replays will be available to umpires starting Friday.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella wondered whether a team could challenge a call.

“I’d love to be able to throw a red hankie or a green hankie. Imagine being able to throw something on the field and not be ejected,” he said. “I shouldn’t say it’s not going to work, but this could turn into a little bit of a fiasco initially.”

Fan interference has been a big issue in baseball, with almost constant debate since Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall and gave Derek Jeter a home run during the 1996 AL championship series. Many blown calls have occurred at newer ballparks, where fans are closer to the field have the ability to reach over fences.

“In this day and age, where all these ballparks are being built now where people can reach out over the outfield fence and catch balls, fan interference is becoming more and more of an issue,” Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine said.

Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers called the decision “a slap in the face of umpires that have been here for a long time” and said the decision might have been made because Alex Rodriguez lost a home run on a blown call May 21.

“It overshot the mark by far just because, what, in a Yankee game someone didn’t get a homer? Please. It’s happened thousands of times,” Rogers said. “That’s part of the game. It’s the beauty of the game. Mistakes are made.”