You may have seen the pictures from a baseball game played last week by theAtlanta Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The two teams went 19innings and played for over six hours before the Braves won thanksto one of the more egregious umpiring calls in recent years.

Such bad calls are rare. Of the millions of decisions made bymajor league umpires in a season, only a handful are bad enough towarrant an explosion on YouTube (and an appearance on this blog;sadly MLB has taken down the video).

Still, even in the face of pretty obvious evidence, Major LeagueBaseball does nothing to correct these horrible calls. A few yearsago, MLB adopted video review for home run calls to judge whether aball cleared the fence, but that's as far as they go. Obviousmistakes, such as the one made in Atlanta, go uncorrected.Apologies are made, but nothing is done to prevent them fromrecurring.

I was once one of those who opposed video review in baseballbecause I felt it would slow the already tortoise-paced games to asnail's pace. I did not want to see the endless delays forreviewing calls such as what we see in the National FootballLeague.

With the technology available to correct many calls, baseballrefuses to face this important fact, as stated by SportsIllustrated writer Joe Posnanski: “… it's just not sustainablein today'stechnological world to make bad calls on the field.”

Now what does all this have to do with insurance?

Last week I interviewed Belen Tokarski, assistant vice presidentof technology and agency solutions for CNA, for an article I amwriting on real-time download for commercial lines insurers thatwill be running in the September issue of TechDecisions.

She reports that approximately 75 percent of the agents CNAdeals with fall under the heading of technology challenged. Theseagents aren't using typewriters and mailing in requests for quotes,but they aren't taking advantage of even some of the optionsavailable through their agency management systems, much lessenjoying the capabilities of early adopters for real-timedownload.

These agents are finding it easy and comfortable to performtasks that aren't challenging because most insurers—while scouringthe market for early adopters—are still following the mantra ofbeing “easy to do business with.”

Those satisfied with the status quo will be in for a rudeawakening sometime soon. One day, carriers will find that it is“just not sustainable in today's technological world” to continueto do business with agents who are unwilling to accept thechallenge of progress, particularly when carriers are investinggreatly in solutions that make everyone's life easier to live—andwork.