Leave the Officials Alone

I am really getting tired of seeing broadcasters second-guess game officials (umpires, referees, linesmen) when it comes to close calls in a game. I recently witnessed Sportscenter (once a great way to ease into the morning, with highlights and scores) run a segment on how baseball umpires have messed up of late. Give it a rest.

It is just wrong. Not only am I a former player in several sports, I am a former baseball umpire and former soccer linesman, and currently worker as a hockey official. And I will be the first to admit we make mistakes from time to time. Some will turn the tide of the game, others will have no overall effect on the game.

Let's think about this. Officials have no time to think, we must see a play, call it fair, foul, safe, out, onside, offside, legal, illegal, heads, tails, good, bad, whatever. And we have to do it immediately. If we pause to think, everyone is all over us because we didn't look sure that we made the right call. At the highest levels, we must also do this with thousands of people telling us what they think of the call. We see it, we render our judgement-- that should be the end of it. Like it or love it, as I like to say-- there is no room for discussion with a coach or player. Our conversations with players and coaches should be restricted to simply to rules clarification-- asking us under what rule we moved the faceoff to the neutral zone.

The ability of television broadcasts enable viewers at home to see a play in super-duper-so slow a turtle can see the play clearly-motion frame-by-frame with definative results. The officials on the field do not have that option. We see it in real time, and we see it only once. If we missed the call, we appologize, but we don't need you blaming us for your teams 0-27 season simply because the pitcher and the runner got to the base at the same time, or we didn't call a trip at center ice with a second to play in the game. It is a moot point. We are not there to be scapegoats.

If you want perfection, build robots who will give you the results you desire. Use Ques-tech to call balls and strikes at home plate. Put electronic sensors in the balls and bases so you know if the ball got there before the runner.

Instant replay isn't the answer either. There is nothing worse for the momentum of a game, or more boring for the fans than to sit in a cold arena for 7 1/2 minutes while a guy (the same guy whom many of you just called blind and deaf) looks closer at a play through a television set to decide what happened. The naked eye should suffice-- if they are wrong... oh darn, work around it. We are not going out of our way to screw you over-- we are simply calling it as we see it.

OK, there are a few rotten apples out there who are bound to screw someone over. But what do you want me to do about someone else? If there are two or three of us, we can try to overrule him, or ever try to straighten him/her out. But we can't make promises, and among those promise we can't make is perfection.

Home teams around here hate me as an official. Why? Because I do not give the "home field advantage". I stick to what I see, as it is outlined in the rules. The home team does not get the benefit of an extra inch here, or the bending of a rule there. We are trained, that if we even think we need to end the play-- the play is over, we blow our whistle, and attempt to maintain the status quo.

A few of those little myths are also dead. The tie NEVER goes to the runner-- the honus is on the fielder to make the play, and if they are able to make that play, give them the out. Reward defense.

In a few years I hope to find myself in a broadcasting booth somewhere-- baseball, hockey, soccer... somewhere, I wouldn't mind toiling away in the minors. But, if I ever have the opportunity to broadcast a game, you will never hear me criticize an official for a close call-- and if I'm on television, you will never hear me ask to see the play in an instant replay. It is wrong to use tools that are not available to the officials to criticize them. There is so much going on during a play it is almost impossible to be perfect-- believe me, if we could, we would.

Please back off the officials, if it is blatant, they will be reprimanded or a protest can be carried. You can not expect another person to be more perfect than you are.