About a year and a half ago I was blogging for Rotodestroyer.com and started an article called "Kill The Umpire". It was an opinion piece about the need to institute the instant-replay in baseball and the general irrelevance of on-field/court/ice officials.
Unfortunately, I got about two paragraphs into it, started struggling with my point and then completely ran out of steam (I must have been distracted by a Honeymooners rerun or something).
However, thanks to former NBA referee and fellow gambling addict Tim Donaghy, new life was breathed into this idea.
Originally my reasoning was all about accuracy and that making the correct call should always be a league's number one priority. I felt that instant-replay worked well for the NFL and that goal reviews were generally pretty accurate for the NHL when administered, *COUGH BRETT HULL COUGH*. If I remember correctly there were some blown calls in the 2005 ALCS regarding home runs being fair or foul. Why Major League Baseball wouldn't put a system in place that allowed the umpire to check a replay to determine whether the ball had gone to the left or the right of the foul pole was absolutely infuriating to me.
But then I started asking people if they agreed with my sentiments and I was met with a resounding NO. Most of the other braying sports aficionados told me they hated instant-replay in all it's forms, primarily because it slowed the games down to a grinding halt. When I asked them if they cared about accuracy they all pointed out that those systems were still being run by humans and could never be 100% accurate no matter how many looks they have at a play. And when I mentioned my idea about an anonymous Big Brother-esque referee calling penalties/fouls/strikes and balls from a secret booth they nearly vomited in my face proclaiming sarcastically we should just have finely tuned sports-robots play the games for us.
Eventually I started to see their point and even began to agree with it.
But NOW look! Now look who was right! ME, that's who! (Now that's what I call journalism)
Not only are officials often incorrect with a call, but it's become public knowledge that they can be completely crooked. I'm by no means saying that all refs are fixing games but we are now very aware that it can, does and most likely will continue to happen.
I believe it's time for officials to be treated like jurors and completely removed from the public eye.
Here's how I see it working for each sport:
BASEBALL
Keep the umpires on the field. They will still call balls, strikes, force and tag-outs subjectively. I do agree that this is part of the game and is part of what makes baseball unique. However, things like home runs, close foul balls, fan interference etc should be reviewed with instant-replay. Umpires who consistently make incorrect calls should be reprimanded and trends regarding which teams are getting the benefit of the incorrect calls and how the calls effect the spread/ over-under should be analyzed
HOCKEY, BASKETBALL and FOOTBALL
This is where my sequestering idea comes in. All officials are moved into a video room where they can monitor every camera angle of every play. Through a headset they can all speak directly to an official on game level who administers their decisions. The game level guy can share his thoughts based upon what he sees, but he can always be overruled. No one in the public knows who they are and they are provided top-notch security during their tenure as an official. The unions probably wouldn't be upset about this because it would actually create more jobs. It would also open the door for women and other groups who don't fit the prototype of a standard official (IE. not a white man).
Well, I'm pretty much out of steam again. I guess I'll go see what Art Carney is doing this week.
