"Did you see that, that was such bullshit!" screams my brother -in-law, on the phone from Yankee Stadium in New York. Why would I receive such an irate phone call at 2:30 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon? You guessed it, another umpire had taken matters into his own hands and altered the outcome of a game, by initially calling Greg Zaun safe and then changing his mind, and calling him out, robbing the Blue Jays of the go ahead run in their afternoon tilt with the Yankees. This seems to happen far too often these days, an umpire or referee making a ridiculous call for whatever reason, but no matter what it significantly alters the history of sport, shatters the dreams of loyal fans, costs people jobs, turns entire cities on their ear. I still hate Stephan Walkom for awarding that lame penalty shot to Jason Blake in the 2002 first round series between the Leafs and Islanders. Sure, the Leafs won, but that call turned the momentum in the Islanders favour when it looked like the Leafs were about to seize the series by the throat. It is hard enough when your team is defeated by a mortal enemy but when that enemy does not even have the skill to play the game, that is simply wrong.
My two favourite examples are first back in 2001 in a game between Jacksonville Jaguars and my Cleveland Browns; with the season hanging in the balance Cleveland came up with what appeared to be two game winning stops in the dying moments, only to have the referees revert back TWO plays, review the play, and change the call, allowing Jacksonville to continue on and steal not only the victory, but the season away from The Browns and everyone in Cleveland. We were so infuriated we threw a tennis ball and a beer bottle towards the field in disgust, only to have everyone else in the dawg pound join in. The rest is hazy as we bolted for the car on our way home (BUT we have since been voted the 2nd worst fans ever!!! By TSN). My point is that ever since that day, Cleveland football has been in a downward spiral. Are they related? Hard to say, but, had the referees not decided to take the game into their hands, the Brownies may not be in such a sorry state, after all, a playoff berth can do wonders for a team (more fans, easier to attract free agents, more respect throughout the league.
The other example is to reach back to 1985, game 6 of the World Series, Jorge Orta at the plate. Todd Worrell on the mound, bottom of the 9th, Cards leading 1-0 and the world watching...slow roller to Jack Clark, flip to Worrell, one out - but wait, Don Denkinger called Orta safe!!! Sure it was a bang-bang play, but in all honesty it was probably one of the worst calls ever and I write this as I am literally wearing a Royals cap...No matter what angle you look at it from, no matter what speed, in each instance Orta is clearly out and what is worse Dekinger signals safe before either the ball or the runner arrived on the scene. A few batters later KC eeked out a 2-1 victory and two nights later were World Champs as the Cardinals never recovered from that. History had been altered by someone paid to protect the integrity of the game.
It is funny though that rarely (until recently I would have said never) are umpires ever questioned or called out publicly by league officials to defend these obvious errors, yet things get worse...look at the NBA and Tim Donaghy...the guy was betting on games he officiated, and one can only guess how long this went on for. What can we do about it though? Nothing, except continue to voice our concerns. We can tear down the athletes so it is high time we took a serious look at the officiating. I am tired of it.