Instant replay has come to baseball. Let the howling begin.

This week, as the season winds down, Major League Baseball unveiled technology ostensibly designed to let umpires take a second look at balls hit along the foul poles that might or might not be home runs by a matter of inches.

Traditionalists are unhappy; others say the move takes baseball – the lone holdout among major spectator sports – into the 21st century.

Count us among the skeptics.

Yes, the history of baseball is chock-full of calls that the umps got wrong – calls that affected the outcome of games, even in the World Series.

So what?

Yes, Commissioner Bud Selig says the practice will be limited to disputed home-run and foul-ball calls. But how long before it’s expanded – a la football – to virtually every disputed play on the field?

Fallibility has always been a key part of the national pastime. And that means occasional mistakes.

Subject every call to scientific, high-tech analysis and, before you know it, the game will become a boring slave to technology.

What’s the logical end – get rid of the players in favor of carefully calibrated automatons?

Besides, baseball games are long enough as it is now. Just how drawn-out will the replay process be?

Which brings us to the real concern: Is this really meant to ensure that games are decided accurately – or to provide a chance to air beer commercials before, during and after the replay?

Don’t be surprised when, sometime soon, play is halted for five minutes for the umpires to give everyone a “9th inning warning.”

It works for the NFL.