Source: Major League Baseball will start using video replay Thursday

Just in time for its pennant races, the grand ol’ game officially embraced the wonders of technology Tuesday, with Major League Baseball poised to announce that umpires will be allowed starting Thursday to review video replays of disputed home runs, a baseball source told The Times.

One of the first three series to feature the possible use of replays will be the Angels’ home series against the Texas Rangers, which starts Thursday.

Baseball general managers voted 25-5 last year to use replays, and agreements were later struck with the unions for the players and the umpires.

A series of disputed homers in May boosted the outcry for the introduction of replay, which is used in the three other major professional sports leagues but was slow to arrive in a game beloved by purists, partially for its tradition of umpiring only with the naked eye.

On May 18, however, a national television audience on ESPN watched home plate umpire Bob Davidson and two of his fellow crew members overrule third-base umpire Mike Reilly’s call that awarded New York Mets slugger Carlos Delgado a three-run homer against the New York Yankees. A replay showed Delgado’s hit struck the lower left field foul pole, and then-Mets bench coach Jerry Manuel was ejected for arguing the reversal.

Days later, Yankee star Alex Rodriguez hit an apparent homer off a yellow staircase behind the Yankee Stadium center-field fence, but umpires errantly ruled the hit a double.

“Boundary calls” such as Delgado’s hit, or a questionable fly ball such as Rodriguez’s that may or may not clear an outfield fence are now subject to review if an umpire crew chief opts for the replay, a baseball source told the Associated Press. The source could not be identified because an official announcement by Commissioner Bud Selig is scheduled at 2 p.m.

Video footage from home and visitor television broadcast feeds, in addition to video aired on mlb.com, will be gathered by Major League Baseball Advanced Media in New York, a baseball official told The Times on the condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not yet been made. The umpire crew will review the replays, with the crew chief then determining the correct call.

Replays were first used to settle disputed plays in the NFL in 1986, and video is in place to determine scoring plays in the NHL and NBA.

 lance.pugmire@latimes.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.