Get it right

Sam Jones Jr.

Oakland

Send comments (50-100 words) on the new Sports Spat or any sports

topic to turn2@angnewspapers.com. Include full name and city. Extra

responses to this question appear in the online version of these letters.

Still a 'final call'

AS LONG AS MLB continues to entrust its game to unqualified, dishonest, delusional umpires who care more about their egos than the game, nothing will change. Instant replay is just an illusion of fairness. The final call would still be up to some egotistical umpire.

Calvin Jackson

Oakland

Use the technology

OF COURSE. I can't believe in this technology-laden world, that a system that would enable the right call to be determined would be detrimental to the game. The "human element" is fine, but if your team is on the wrong end of a call that could be righted by the use of camera, isn't getting the "correct call" better than missing it? Imagine a World Series Game 7 home run called "foul" when replays show it being fair. Instant replay isn't perfect, but it's better than what's in place now.

Rich Lieberman

Oakland

Use it for strike zone

IF THEY ARE going to use it, they should use it for everything -- including balls and strikes. But that isn't going to happen. The umpires need to start being responsible and work as a team. If one umpire sees a call differently because of his angle, he needs to speak up and confer with the other umpires. Every umpire has a different strike zone, that in itself is a joke. If the umpires drop their egos and learn to speak up when one feels a call should be overruled, it's their responsibility.

Phillip Avalos

Sacramento

Umpires doing a fine job

NO. THE UMPIRES generally do an excellent job in reviewable situations. Even the occasional incorrect call is seldom the actual game-decider. More important, the pace and flow and drama of the game would be disrupted by instant replay. Baseball is an old- fashioned, low-tech game. It is the only major U.S. sport played during the day in the middle of the week. It evokes memories of skipped school, cold beer and Cracker Jack prizes. With instant replay, we might never have had memories of classic Sparky Anderson, Billy Martin or Lou Pinella meltdowns. With instant replay, there may no longer be arguments about specific plays to bridge the gap between the final out of the World Series and the first pitch of spring training. Instant replay could turn baseball into just another video game.

Josephine Soublet

Hayward

Playoffs if at all

NO. BUT IF MLB does decide to use it, then it should be used only in playoff games.

Sam Chaires

San Leandro

Down to a crawl

ISN'T BASEBALL a slow enough sport as it is? I mean, I love the game, but it isn't a game without humans -- and humans make mistakes. Besides, what would guys like me have to fight over at work and people like the good folks at your newspaper have to write about?

Daniel Forte

Hayward