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Ducks rally, oust UW from Pac-10 tourney

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Sometime soon, you will be at a dinner party or sports bar and the topic of Major League Baseball instant replay will come up.

Unless you sleep with the Bill James Handbook under your pillow, you will not be prepared.

Here is a primer on how to argue for — or against — the replay rule, which begins today:

● Your argument: Welcome to the new millennium. The NFL has been using replay since 1986, the NHL since 1991 and the NBA since 2002. New ballparks have more outfield quirks than ever before, making it more difficult to tell when a ball is a home run. And replay will only be used for "boundary calls" on home runs — whether balls are fair or foul at the fence, whether there is fan interference at the wall or whether a ball cleared, in some cases, a yellow line.

● Your witty comeback: Delays? Baseball has more than any other sport because it has no clock.

● Your argument: The Grand Old Game has gotten by without replay since 1876. And in a warped sense, isn't human error part of the game? The new rule seems to put more emphasis on who was affected. During a three-day span in May, the Mets' Carlos Delgado and the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez had home runs taken away. Funny — when something happens to a New York team, it becomes an epidemic.

● Your witty comeback: Can you imagine if Carlton Fisk's home run would have gone to replay?