Baseball Down the Line

No rush for more replay

Commissioner Bud Selig’s advisory committee met for an hour last week, via conference call. The subject of instant replay never came up, according to a source familiar with the discussion.

Not even a week had passed since the blown call that cost Detroit’s Armando Galarraga a perfect game when Selig said this: “Most baseball people are really against instant replay.”

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia and Dodgers Manager Joe Torre, each of whom serves on Selig’s 14-man committee, agreed the sentiment for more replay is far from unanimous. The injustice of the Galarraga game, in which umpire Jim Joyce ruled Cleveland’s Jason Donald safe at first base when replays showed he should have been the final out, has not necessarily swayed Torre and his colleagues.

“You’re only looking at one side,” Torre said. “If we had replay and the ump called him out — and he was safe — we’d be cursing replay.

“The guys I talk to, I don’t think they really want to change anything. I don’t think they want a lot of instant replay. Is there room for more? I think there will be a lot of discussion, but I’m not sure we want to take the human element out of this.”

Reaching out to voters

The Dodgers are harnessing the power of social media in trying to get Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp elected to the starting lineup of the All-Star game. No Dodgers outfielder has won the fan vote since Darryl Strawberry in 1991.

The Dodgers lead the majors in Twitter followers, according to team spokesman Josh Rawitch, with more than 23,000 as of Friday. They have more than 221,000 fans on Facebook — among the top five clubs — and more than double the 105,000 they had in September.

Some fans surely would vote anyway. But, if every Facebook fan casts the maximum 25 votes, the Dodgers could generate more than 5 million votes each for Ethier and Kemp. The difference in votes last year between Carlos Beltran, who got the third and final outfield spot, and Alfonso Soriano, who finished fourth, was 119,301.

Outstanding child care

Whether you rooted for the Angels or the San Francisco Giants in the 2002 World Series, you’re bound to say “aww” when you see a replay of the most heartwarming play, when J.T. Snow rescued the 3-year-old batboy son of Giants Manager Dusty Baker from a near-collision at the plate.

Snow hears about it all the time.

“It kind of frustrates me because I hit over .400 in the World Series and had a hit in all seven games,” Snow told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s only been done like 25 times in the history of baseball.

“I had a great World Series, and everybody remembers me for picking up Darren Baker.”

Life in a fish bowl

No pressure, kid: Cleveland called up catcher Carlos Santana, the big-time prospect they got from the Dodgers in the Casey Blake trade, and batted him third Friday, in his major league debut. On Sunday, the Indians face Stephen Strasburg. . . . The Florida Marlins plan to embed two aquariums in the backstop behind the plate in their new ballpark. No doubt a third baseman will say he lost a line drive in the glare of the fish tank.

—Bill Shaikin