Further review

Bill Dwyre insults umpires who oppose instant replay by claiming they do so because “they know they’re right.” It couldn’t be they think replay would make endless games even longer, with every pitch up for time-wasting scrutiny, could it?

As for the play that inspired Dwyre’s call for instant replay, neither camera angle made it clear whether Holliday touched the plate -- as Dwyre more or less admits. So what good would replay have done?

David Daniel

Woodland Hills

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Did Matt Holliday touch the plate? Perhaps not.

Was it the right result? Absolutely.

The Padres catcher’s right to block the plate ended the instant he failed to catch the ball. At that point, he was guilty of obstructing Holliday’s path to the plate. “Obstruction” is defined in MLB Rule 2.00 “is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.” Also, “After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the ‘act of fielding’ the ball.”

And Rule 7.06 elaborates: “The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.”

Instant replay wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Phil Weiss

Studio City