#MLBVideos: MLB Replay Room EXCLUSIVE look! (What happens when a call is challenged?)

MLB Replay Room EXCLUSIVE look! (What happens when a call is challenged?)

It could be a thin line between winning and losing in Major League Baseball. And that’s why it’s so important to get the calls right. The Mets are challenging the call at first base. When a challenge is made on the field, the call comes here to the replay review room at MLB headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Have you ever wondered what happens in this room when a challenge is made? Come on, let’s find out. Each fourperson MLB umpire crew works either two or three weekl long shifts in the replay room during the season. At any time there’s eight guys, eight umpires here for 15 games. Um, and at most you’ll ever do is two games at a time. The replay center uses one stadium high home camera and two batter cameras provided by MLB and then an even mix of up to four super slow motion and 17 isolated cameras combined from the home and away broadcasts. You might find more than 30 people in the replay room on a given night. There are techs monitoring the various feeds, engineers on hand in the event of technical malfunctions, and administrators capturing data from each review. But three of the most important jobs belong to the operator seated next to the umpire controlling what the ump sees, the umpire supervisor, who ensures proper protocols are followed for each review, and the captain who takes in and then feeds all relevant replay angles to the operator for a review. When there’s a close play in a game, the operator at that station alerts the room with the station number. Three. Did you hear it? Three. Three. Everybody pops up in the room and they all go behind the monitor and we’re all like, “Hey, what’s the play? Show us the slow-mo and stuff.” So, um, a lot of times it’s a false alarm because just because it’s a close play doesn’t mean it goes into a replay mode on the field. So, we have to wait for the manager hold to identify whether he’s going to challenge or not. If there is a challenge on the field, the crew chief at the ballpark communicates exactly what is being challenged to the umpire in New York. Hey Doug. Okay, be right back with you. Though the ump assigned to that game ultimately makes the call, all the available umps in the room usually gather behind that station to observe and offer any input if the reviewing ump requests it. The average time for a replay review this season has been 1 minute 25 seconds. the most difficult. Uh, probably plays at the plate. Did he touch the plate? Oh my goodness. He’s out. I think he’s out. It looks good. And hey, Danny James. Okay, we’re looking at clearly shows the foot hitting short. Keith, it’s zoomed for HFR6. I’m going to show you the mid home as well. What you see, James? I’m seeing his foot over the plate. So, I have overturned. He’s out. Hey Danny, you know if we do the right thing call is overturned. The runner is out. Miami will retain. Come above home. Yeah, it it got stuck on the ground and then popped over the top of the plate. Got you. Thank you. Have to review. The runner’s foot hit the ground and went above home plate and never touched it. The call on the field is overturned. The runner is out. So the guy on the field sees the, you know, sees the tag on the top of the leg and as you’re looking down the guy’s feet were over the base over home plate. So you’re going to call him safe. But then obviously camera angles we can see underneath the guy’s foot had jumped over the plate. You know the angle from the ground so you could see that he was out. All right, that’s a wrap from the replay review room. Hey, mistakes happen. Umpires are human. But when they do make a mistake, thanks to what happens in here, they’re safe.

Ever wonder what happens when a call is challenged during an MLB game? Join us as we give you an exclusive look inside the MLB Replay Room!

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