One of the great things about sports are the arguments over who has the best team or who is the best player. The worst thing about sports are the 'close' calls, also known as the 'worst' calls.
Managers are always saying that they hate it when an umpire's (or referee's) call, determine the outcome of the game. The committees who determine the rules of a game never seem to understand this. They try to legislate the judgement calls out of a sport, but all they succeed in doing, is setting up even more arguments. On top of which, game officials don't even make calls that are easy, just because of tradition. Tradition?
You want examples?
The neighborhood play at 2nd base. There are a number of times that infielders aren't even close to the bag when trying to relay a throw to first base, yet the umps call the runner out every time. The argument here is that they are trying to protect the fielder from the baserunner, who is bearing down on them with mayhem in their hearts. That's their job, to stop the double play. If you want to protect the runner, just declare that hitting a fielder at second base is illegal, just as you're trying to do at home plate.
The half-swing ball/strike. No one, NO ONE knows what that is, so eliminate it.
The blocking/charge call in basketball. Bob Ryan says it best. "When you just stand in front of a player like a lamppost, that's not defense. Defense is trying to stop the scoring." You want to stop the controversy? That's easy. There IS no charging call. Period. End of problem, now let's play defense.
The helmet-first hit in football. Football is controlled mayhem. Maybe it's not even controlled. Today's players are much more skilled and athletic than they were 40 years ago. If you really want the game to go back to being an exhibition of skill rather than a legal gang fight, eliminate helmets. Before you say, how stupid, consider this. Rugby is a tough sport, too. No helmets in that one.
When discussing officiating in any sport, let's go back to basics. Officials are there to ensure that players follow the rules. Call ALL the violations. Even the ones that aren't glamorous.
## Hitters should stay in the batter's box and not step out after every pitch and wander around home plate.
## Pitchers should get the ball, get the signal, and throw. Not rub up the ball or check the weather in the deep recesses of center field.
## When you score a touchdown, hand the ball to an official and go to the bench, No histrionics, no dances and no trash talk. No dances or celebrating for any reason until you go back to the bench. Then you can stage a dance sequence from Glee, for all I care.
## Hang on the rim at all and it's a technical. They allow it so players can be assured of a safe landing. You only need to protect yourself because you hang on the rim. Make it a technical foul and disallow the basket. This will probably eliminate the posturing after a dunk, too. Not to mention that it will eliminate 50% of ESPN's "Top Ten dunks,er....plays from the day before.
Because officials allow players to get away with this, youngsters pick it up and exaggerate it, so year after year, it gets worse.
Obviously, the Duke-Syracuse game is what initiated this posting and Vod's too. It just seems that the bigger or more important the game, the worse the officiating gets. Or maybe we just notice it more. Either way, at least we can be assured that Jim Boeheim is not on any Valium regimen.
I see that the San Fran Giants are bringing Barry Bonds into spring training as an instructor. I wonder if he's going to supply the syringes, too.
***THEY SAID IT***
"Now that Robinson Cano is making the kind of money he’s making with the
Mariners, I think he should just hire somebody to run out ground balls
for him." -- Mike Lupica
"The Sochi Olympics are almost over. And March
Madness is just around the corner. So most Americans can soon go from
cheering for sports they’ve never cared about before, to cheering for
teams they’ve never cared about before." -- Janice Hough
"The Detroit Pistons fired bench boss Mo Cheeks. You know you have a problem when you're parting with coaches faster than Taylor Swift parts with boyfriends." -- RJ Currie
" A “possibly rabid” possum showed up at Philadelphia Phillies spring
training. This was very dangerous. If the rabid possum came across any
Philadelphia sports fans, it could have been hurt." -- Brad Dickson
"In the NBA All-Star Game, the final score was Eastern Conference 877, Western Conference 873. Or something like that." -- Brad Dickson
"Oakland A’s pitcher Drew Pomeranz missed the Oakland A’s first spring-training workout because of an ingrown leg hair. So who tended to that one, the team trainer or the head groundskeeper?" -- Dwight Perry
"Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter and model girlfriend Hannah Davis have
reconciled. Apparently he’s batted around and is back to the top of the
order." -- Fark.com
CP-
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