(610 Sports) -- On Sunday night, the Royals came up on the short end of a controversial call at home plate that was upheld by video replay, against the Chicago White Sox. The ruling ended the game and drew the ire of many, including Royals manager Mike Matheny who was critical of the replay process in his postgame comments.
Matheny says something needs to be done in regards to the replay process and its' transparency, he's not alone in his assessment. 610 Sports' Bob Fescoe, host of Fescoe in the Morning, thinks there needs to be more accountability and that starts with allowing more ears to be on the discussion between umpires and those that they are talking to in New York City, during replay reviews.
On Tuesday, Fescoe brought this point up to Royals pitcher Brad Keller, during Keller's weekly spot on the show and acknowledged to Fescoe that his sentiment is felt in the Royals' clubhouse.
"I just think there's no transparency, right," Fescoe asked of Keller? Are those umpires even talking to anybody, are we sure that box that they have the headphones on is plugged in anywhere, do we know for a fact that that they're actually communicating with New York? Because I don't know."
These are fair questions to ask, we've seen it time and again where replay reviews seem to show one thing and umpires rule another, there seems to be little continuity in how replays are being handled and what is dictating the calls.
"In order to ease all that, we need transparency," Fescoe continued. "That conversation between wherever that box goes to and the umpires needs to be broadcast on television, radio, and the stadium for everyone to hear, so everybody knows what's going on, what's being looked at, and what's being discussed because right now there's no transparency."
While it might be a stretch to pull every single MLB fan in on the conversation, he's right. There needs to be some sort of transparency with these discussions, so players and managers can understand why calls are being made the way they are.
"No, that's a really good point," Keller said. "It's funny you say that, because (Jared) Dyson was the one that kind of said that in the clubhouse after the game. He was like 'it's amazing that no one hears that conversation, that's strictly between whoever's in New York and those umpires.' He brought up a thing that at least the managers should put on a headset, too, just to understand how they're coming up with this conclusion, what they are talking about."
"That way it's not like an umpire stanning for other umpires, even if the call is, you know, not exactly right. You know, like they don't really wanna show up the other umpire," Keller said cautiously. "There's a lot of speculation behind that but I think that's a really good point, I think like you said, no one's listening to that conversation and it should have more than just three umpire's ears on that thing. I think at least maybe the managers, or like you said, maybe broadcasters. That'd be pretty cool."
To listen to the rest of Fescoe in the Morning's conversation with Brad Keller, click the audio player below: