After review, instant replay a hit

July 7, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Hirschbeck, Torre agree technology makes baseball better

POLAND

Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre and veteran MLB umpire John Hirschbeck may not have seen eye-to-eye on everything in their careers on the diamond.

But they agree that instant replay challenges have made baseball better.

“I think it’s what our world wants,” Hirschbeck said of the challenges MLB managers now receive. “I know in talking to people that love the game, watch the game, most of them love replay.”

Torre, now MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations, said he’s “satisfied” with the system.

“When we rolled it out [in 2014], we said it’d be a three-year project,” Torre said. “Technology keeps getting better and as long as technology keeps getting better, we’ll make adjustments in what we do.

“I tell people it’s an imperfect game, but it just feels perfect,” said Torre who managed the New York Yankees to four championships from 1996-2007. “And it’s human. And it’s a game of life to me.

“The fact that you walk down the street and you stumble, that’s what this game is all about — make a mistake, fix them and move on.”

Hirschbeck and Torre were in town Sunday and Monday to participate in the inaugural fundraiser for The Magic of Michael Foundation which honors the memory of Michael Hirschbeck, the 27-year-old son of John and Denise Hirschbeck of Poland who died in April 2014.

Michael suffered from adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare neurogenetic brain disease that has no cure. His older brother John was 8 when he died of the same disease in 1993.

The Foundation, which sponsored a golf scramble on Monday at The Lake Club, raises money to help area families with small children facing illnesses.

Because he missed most of the 2014 season because of his son’s death and then an injury, Hirschbeck said he’s still adjusting to replay challenges that are now a part of just about every major league game.

“I’m kind of in that [adjustment] process this year,” said the Connecticut native who became an American League umpire in 1984. “This is really my first year where I’m experiencing [replay on the field].”

Last summer, Hirschbeck rehabbed his injury in New York City where MLB’s Replay Command Center is located.

Hirschbeck said he’s been told he “had more time in replay [center experience] than anyone else.”

Umpires take turn manning the replay center where they communicate with at least two umpires from a game where a call is being challenged.

“It gives you a totally different perspective,” Hirschbeck said. “There is so much that goes on in that room, not just the camera angles but the frames per second, 120 on the super slow-motion.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said referring to one camera that shows details the eye can’t detect. “The cameras are that good.”

Hirschbeck and Torre agree umpires aren’t relaxing despite the backup system.

“Speaking for the umpires, the one thing on their minds is we need to get it right,” Torre said.

Hirschbeck said finding out during a game about a mistake isn’t easy.

“You know you have a safety net, but it still bothers me just as much now to get overturned and think I missed the play as it ever did,” said Hirschbeck, admitting that at first he wasn’t enthusiastic about the replay system.

“It’s not hard because in the end it’s easier,” Hirschbeck said, adding with a laugh, “It’s a hard adjustment mentally, I guess, because I’m old.”

Torre said baseball will never perfect a system that eliminates all error.

“The people who have issues with [replay challenges] are the ones that assume that when you put replay in, you’re never going to miss a call again,” Torre said. “And that’s not the nature of our game.

“We teach our young people that even though you strike out four times in a game, it doesn’t mean the end of the world. You just have to see how you bounce back from it.”

Torre estimated that 47 percent of challenged calls are overturned.

“A lot of those calls, the umpire was blocked out,” Torre said. “Two years ago, we couldn’t change that.

“So it’s a plus-plus as far as I am concerned. I think it’s working very well.”

Torre said umpires will never be replaced.

“We need the umpires on the field and we need the umpires in the replay center,” he said.

Hirschbeck said umpires have no interest in being wrong.

“You know you are not perfect but you want to be right all the time,” he said.