Video Replay
By:
Until this season, video review was only allowed for boundary calls involving home runs, and it happened at the discretion of the umpires, who would leave the field to look at replays and then return to make their decision known.
Beginning with the 2014 season, each manager will start a game with one challenge. If it is upheld, he retains his challenge but can never have more than two in a game. If the manager exhausts his challenges before the start of the seventh inning, he is out of luck, adding a new element of strategy to the game. Beginning in the top of the seventh, the crew chief is empowered to institute a review.
The on-site officials will not make the call, however. All reviews will be conducted at the Replay Command Center at MLBAM headquarters in New York. Two additional four-man umpiring crews have been hired and umpires will be rotated through New York to review video feeds. Every ballpark will have a designated communication location near home plate. There, the crew chief and at least one other Major League umpire will have access to a hard-wired headset connected to the Replay Command Center. The decision of the replay official in New York will be final.
Another big change is that teams will be allowed to show replays, including those of disputed plays, on their in-park video boards.