Replay in baseball became a good idea around the time that Jerry Meals blew an easy home plate call and cost the Pirates a game.
If everyone could see it was the wrong call, why not correct it? Even Meals admitted his mistake the next day, long after it was too late to do anything about it.
So with that call, and others just as egregious, embarrassing the game, MLB decided to do something about it. Instead of endless arguments, go to the video. The umpires get on a headset to New York, where a different crew of umpires reviews a play that's been challenged.
Makes perfect sense. But now the reliance on technology has gone too far, as we saw in the deciding fifth game of the National League Division Series.
Washington was threatening with runners a first and second. Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras snapped a quick pickoff throw to first base, where Washington's Jose Lobaton was ruled safe.
The call looked good. Lobaton clearly beat the throw. With nothing to lose, the Cubs challenged the call, and they won big.
When the video was slowed to a crawl, it showed Lobaton's foot losing contact with the base for a split second. First baseman Anthony Rizzo's tag was still on Lobaton. The call was reversed. Lobaton was called out.
Inning over, rally over, and the series was also essentially over for the Nationals.
By the letter of the law, the reversal was correct. By the spirit of what replay is supposed to be, it was an impossibly nitpicky call.
Lobaton was a fool for getting far enough off the base for there to have been an issue. Bad play on his part.
But he beat the throw back. An expert in physics can explain why his foot became disengaged from the bag for a blink, but that shouldn't have been the deciding factor.
It took a magnifying glass to make the call, and it shouldn't be that way.
Let replay correct the big and obvious mistakes, like the one Meals made against the Pirates.
For the ones that need the most minute technological review to reverse, let the umpire's call stand. It's a baseball game, not a CSI case.
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--ALUMNI DAY
Santonio Holmes stopped by the Steelers offices last week for a brief ceremony that allowed him to retire as a member of the team.
Holmes last played in the NFL three years ago, and hasn't worn black and gold since 2009. He was part of the second-greatest play in franchise history, the leaping catch in the corner of an end zone to win Super Bowl XLIII.
But he was gone a year later, sacrificed to the New York Jets for a fifth-round draft pick. His game was still fine; he'd had his best statistical year in 2010. Holmes had just become too much of a pain in the neck to keep around.
It was never anything that big -- a couple of marijuana incidents, accusations of a domestic dispute, run-ins with police. But it was enough to lead the Steelers to give away a former No. 1 draft pick.
However, there he was last week, smiling with Art Rooney II and Mike Tomlin, reminiscing about his happiest days in the NFL.
Memories really are selective. Should we now await the Plaxico Burress retirement ceremony?
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--ULTIMATE WALK OFF
Friday was the anniversary of Bill Mazeroski's home run that won the 1960 World Series for the Pirates.
We still don't know what the exit velocity was, but it counts anyway.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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