June 2, 2011, Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers is on the cusp of history as he is an out away from a perfect game. A groundball is hit and infielder Miguel Cabrera throws it to Galarraga at first to complete the greatest feat there is in baseball. That was until umpire Jim Joyce declared the runner safe at first, even though the throw beat him by half a step. Galarraga stands in disbelief, knowing he has been robbed of a feat that has only been done 23 times in baseball history. This brings up the debate of extending instant replay in all sports, which would help prevent these mishaps that sometimes change the outcomes in these billion dollar operations, but also change something, that has been in place for over a hundred years.

With billions of dollar being distributed through sports now a day, it is imperative that the outcome on the field should be without controversy of any sort. So many games end decided on what the referees believe to be the right call and not always what is the correct call. With the technology now in place in modern society, is should be a no brainier to extend instant replay to help get the play on the field correct. Before 2012, there was no replay in baseball period, until the introduction of replay to review home run calls. Many times in the NFL and College Football we are left without enough camera angles, leaving us without enough evidence to get the correct call in place. At the start of the 2012-2013 NFL Season, the league use “replacement officials” while a labor deal was in works with the current officials. Every game seemed to be negatively impacted by the officials, with several controversial calls and games being delayed while the referees were conversing. The thing that keeps these major sports operations alive, the fans, are also in favor of increasing instant replay. In a poll, over 80% of fans agreed that the use of instant replay should increase with 67% of the strongly agreeing. With today’s technology it is crucial that the use of instant replay is increased to help give the fans a better product.

Many people believe that it is wrongful to bring technology into a game that has been powered by man for the past century. The use of technology would take the excitement out of the game, as umpires would have to delay the game at least five minutes for each call, destroying momentum that a team might have going for them. While everybody hates a bad call, it stirs up instant news that is talked about on the news for several days. This drama keeps the fan entertained, and wanting more, and gives us something to talk about. Games are already being complained about for being way to long, and the use of instant replay would just delay the process even more. Sports are one of the most popular things in America right now and as they say “if I isn’t broke, don’t fix it”.

This topic will continually be debated on until one day instant replay eventually is forced to take over. Eventually the championship will come down to human error, and we will have no choice but to convert to replay, but until then let the deliberation continue.