Within the last week, the big news out of the game of Baseball is should the MLB institute Instant Replay in Baseball games. Now, this controversy began when a Home Run was disputed on a Sunday Night game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees on May 18 th, a game in which the Mets won 11-2. The Mets Carlos Beltran, hit the ball off the left field foul pole, which MLB rules states that if a ball hits the foul pole, it's a Home Run. Instead it was called a foul ball.

Throughout the rest of the week, there had been questionable Home Run calls that could have changed the outcomes of games, and possibly the playoffs. As we see in almost every postseason race, the difference between making and missing the playoffs can be decided by just one game.

Major League Baseball is the only league in the big four that doesn't use Instant Replay. Instant Replay is mostly known in Football, where coaches can just about challenge any ruling, twice a game. In Basketball, it is determined to see time, if the basket was three points or just two, or if the player let the ball out of his hand before time expired. In Hockey, it's only used to see if the puck crossed the goal line, and if it did so before time ran out.

Baseball is America's past time, which has caused many to argue that there shouldn't be a change in how the games are to be umpired. But with all the questionable Home Run calls in the last week, it seems that Major League Baseball is one step closer to instituting Instant Replay in games where a Home Run is disputed.

This seems pretty reasonable to the average Baseball fan, and according to Steve Phillips of ESPN's Baseball Tonight, it would speed up the game. However, where would the line be drawn after instituting Instant Replay for Home Runs? Would it be later used to see if a player was safe or out on the base path, or see if a runner on second is attempting to steal the Catcher's signals to the Pitcher? Would in a few years, Instant Replay would be used to see if a strike was really a ball, or if a ball was really a strike. In this case why even have Umpires, when you could just run the whole game by computers and the replay (Television broadcasts already do it).

One of Phillips's colleagues on Baseball Tonight, Eric Young, thought you could just add two umpires down the foul lines in the outfield, this way the umpire crew would have a closer view of the ball. The First and Third Base Umpire usually has between 200 to 300 feet to see if the ball is a legitimate home run. By having umpires down the foul line, it would decrease that distance to 200 feet or less, making it a lot easier to see if a ball is a legitimate Home Run. They already use six umpires in the playoffs, and it seems to work there, so why not put six umpires during a regular season game.

Of course, one of the downsides of that scenario is the season is 162 games long, with 30 teams in the league. Should we really care about one Home Run in one of the 4860 games during the regular season?

One thing is for certain, it seems like Baseball will not be able to go forever, without embracing the Instant Replay technology. If not next season, than no doubt within the next three, Major League Baseball will have to crawl out of their hole of pastime baseball, and realize that we do live in a world where players and referees cheat and bet on games. A world, where athletes in almost every sport can get an edge over their opponents, by taking performance enhancing drugs such as steroids or HGH (Human Growth Hormones). And a world, where Instant Replay decides a player's, a team's, or a city's fate in one of many different camera angles.

Now, the MLB has hinted about testing Instant Replay for Home Runs in the lower levels of the Minor Leagues this season. The earliest it would be initiated in the big leagues would be next season, but it seems more likely for that to occur in the 2010 season.

However, the owners and the players would have to first approve the new rule, before Instant Replay could be used, and as we should know, even the best bill's and rule's can be shot down when it comes down to a vote.