Resolving the United States' national debt crisis is child's play compared to the weighty issue of the moment: why don't they have instant replay in major-league baseball?
Answer: what's the fun in that? What's wrong with having something to debate that doesn't involve a risk to life, limb or pocketbook?
Instant replay is a fact of life in professional sports, because there's no point in letting technology go to waste. Billions of dollars are spent watching, televising and gambling on pro sports around the world, so it seems anachronistic to fight the desire for order and perfection. It's a fight that baseball is only too willing to take up.
Three years ago next month, major-league baseball agreed to allow the use of video replay for "boundary" home run calls - to determine fair or foul; whether the ball actually left the playing field; or whether it was subject to fan interference. That procedure has been instituted without much grief, even though the very nature of those calls - human eyes judging a small ball travelling 300 to 400 feet against sometimes dodgy backgrounds - is such that even with replay, 100-per-cent certainty remains elusive.
Baseball does not use video replay for plays on the base paths or balls and strikes, despite incidences in playoffs and World Series, and that won't change despite the events of early Wednesday morning at Atlanta's Turner Field that provided much water-cooler fodder throughout the day.
Roll tape: it was 1:50 a.m. local time when Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Michael McKendry applied a swipe-tag on a sliding Julio Lugo of the Atlanta Braves - an "ole" in baseball lingo that would have been the second out of the home half of the 19th inning. Instead, the Braves were awarded a game-winning run and jumped and celebrated a 4-3 win at the end of the longest game in their history while the Pirates argued and gestured and seethed.
Braves' relief pitcher Scott Proctor grounded to third where the Pirates' Pedro Alvarez threw home in plenty of time to get Lugo. After the game, home plate umpire Jerry Meals came out to address the media - something he is not required to do - and said that after watching video replay "it appeared [McKendry]might have got [Lugo]on the shin area. I'm guessing he might have got him, but when I was out there when it happened, I didn't see a tag. I just saw the glove sweep. I didn't see the tag hit his leg."
The Pirates, who haven't had a winning season, let alone a sniff of the playoffs, since 1992, have been the feel-good story of the 2011 major-league season, hanging around in a tight, four-team race in the well-balanced National League Central. Club president Frank Coonelly filed a formal protest with the commissioner's office half an hour after the game, and Joe Torre, the former major-league manager who is now executive vice-president for baseball operations, said in a statement: "Unfortunately, it appears that the call was missed, as Jerry Meals acknowledged after the game. … The tag was applied and the game should have remained tied.
"Having been the beneficiary of calls like this and having been on the other end in my experience as a player and manager, I have felt that this has always been a part of our game." Torre went on to say that "most in the game recognize that the human element always will be part of baseball and instant replay can never replace all judgment calls by umpires."
ESPN reported that Meals's family had been harassed after message boards posted the family's address.
Polls routinely show that players and managers are opposed to the use of replay for plays on the base paths or at home. That ought to tell you something. But baseball insiders acknowledge that there is a middle ground that will be achieved most likely after the retirement of commissioner Bud Selig. Selig has struck a committee with wide-ranging powers to consider changes to playoff and division structure and, yes, replay. Torre is on that committee and said Wednesday's missed call will certainly ensure it remains a topic.
There has been suggestion that the crew chief of each four-man umpire crew be given the freedom to use video replay - possibly with the assistance of video-replay umpires who would be located in a booth at press-box level - of his own volition. Umpires will sometimes huddle now to go over a disputed play if so requested by a manager, so this would be little more than an extension of current policy. It is a way forward that would not end the arguments which baseball fans enjoy. Which is all to the good, at times like these.