In most of the cases linked above the infielder knew (or at least suspected) that they tagged the runner out. If the Umps were looking at the right thing, they could have called it correctly, no? Would you have an objection to the call? Or is it just that video review is intrusive?
Couldn’t this dramatically change how slides are done?
In an extreme case the runner could slide on the far side of the bag. As long as they touched the bag on their way and stopped before their body length was past it.
“Above the base = Safe” could often be hard to determine accurately using video replay. Without a camera looking down from directly above the base, how would a reliably correct call be possible when the overlap / miss distance is small?
By contrast, normal camera angles work pretty well for determining contact with the base.
Stolen bases as a league average are heavily dependent on what ballplayers you have around and their health, much more so than any other statistic. They were UP from normal levels in 2023-2025 so the slight decline this year is probably just a fluke. Nothing about baseball has changed since last year to make them a less appealing strategy.
The purpose of instant reply isn’t to fix that. It’s to fix the brutal calls that have changed the course of games, playoff series, and that lost a guy a perfect game. It’s so the game is decided by how the players play, not by Angel Hernandez.
The fact tat you get the odd weird pop-off call every now and then is a minor emergent product of the fact that we now have a tiny, tiny fraction of the terrible blown calls we used to. It’s worth it.
Make the bases softer. They made them bigger to encourage more steals - now make them less susceptible to a foot bouncing up off of them to discourage replay challenges.
Bring back Stickum
Velcro bases and sliding mitts.
And an upsurge in broken wrists and dislocated elbows.