While football is the most closed of games, baseball is the most open. A fan with a score card, a modest knowledge of the teams and a knack for paying attention has all he needs to watch a game with sophistication. NFL refs are weekend warriors, pulled from other jobs to moonlight, as a group, they're barely competent. That's really why the NFL turned to instant replays. Now old fogies upstairs can't even get the make-over calls right.
Baseball umps work ten years in the minors and know what they are doing.
Replays show how good they are. If Don Denkinger screws up in a split second of Series tension, it's instant lore. Too many of the best NFL teams represent unpalatable values. The Bears are head-thumping braggarts. The Raiders have long been scofflaw pirates.