Last week, Minor League Baseball had a lot of woes involving umpires, instant replay and (later) admittedly missed calls and rules interpretations.

The St. Paul Saints, a minor league team in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, found a viable, albeit one-game, solution.

This past Saturday, the team played an exhibition game against the Gary SouthShore Railcats that used no umpires and no instant replay.

The Saints’ “Umpireless Game,” presented by Hamline University, saw each catcher behind the plate call balls and strikes, and used a preordained group of Little Leaguers in the stands along the first and third base lines to call on-field plays. A “judge” selected by both teams wore judicial robes and stood behind the pitcher’s mound to rule on any calls that were not conclusive to the “jury” seated in the stands.

“We respect all baseball umpires and believe this promotion will allow our ‘jurors’ and both teams to realize how important they really are to the game,” Derek Sharrer, Saints EVP and GM, said of the game. “This is something that has never been attempted before and I think it [made] for an interesting and intriguing nine innings of baseball.”

The Saints won the game, 4-3, with a rally in the bottom of the ninth. “In the end there were no arguments or disputes with the players making their own calls,” according to Sean Aronson, director of media relations and broadcasting for the Saints.

“There was one close play that the jury got to make a call on and the Little Leaguers put up the safe sign,” said Aronson. “The call went against the home team (the Saints), but from where I sat in the press box the call was correct.”

The Railcats went up 3-0 before the Saints rallied for a victory in front of 1.655 people. Everyone seemed to walk away from the experiment very happy. But did the hometown supporters influence the outcome of the ump-less game?

“There was no influencing of calls. It actually went much smoother than we could have hoped,” said Aronson. “We went with what the players called and, if necessary, what the jury decided. The judge on the field also helped if needed, but other than relaying what the catcher called in terms of a ball or strike, so the scoreboard operator was aware, we didn’t need any instant replay.”

Any chance this might happen again?

“We haven’t heard of anyone interested in doing this and I’d be surprised if a Minor League Baseball team did this since they are all affiliated with a Major League organization,” said Aronson. “Major League [Baseball] probably wouldn’t take too kindly to [doing] a promotion like this.”

Barry Janoff is director of sports media marketing initiatives for PromaxBDA. He also is the executive editor for NYSportsJournalism.com, which covers national sports marketing, business and media news; and a contributing writer for Yahoo! and MediaPost.

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