Love 'em or hate 'em, the men in stripes are here to stay
Nobody loves an official. While watching baseball, have you ever wanted to yell, "Kill the umpire!" Ever since they were brought into sports they have been known to make the dumbest calls we've ever seen.
For example, during the recent World Cup, USA player Maurice Edu kicked the ball into his opponent's goal, but a penalty was called on the USA team. Replay clearly showed that it should have been called on the opposing team (Slovenia). If that goal would have counted, the USA would have possibly remained in the running for the World Cup.
Another example comes from baseball. Detroit's pitcher Armando Galarraga was close to pitching a perfect game when the umpire, Jim Joyce, messed it up. The ball was thrown to the first baseman with the runner still about a foot away. The first baseman caught the ball with his foot on the bag before the runner got there, but Joyce called the runner safe. My eyes bugged out when I saw that replay. Honestly, I think Instant Replay needs to be used a lot more in baseball.
Don't even get me started on football, where they always seem to call the wrong player on holding or call holding where there wasn't any holding at all. How many times have we seen them call pass interference on a player when the ball was uncatchable. Also, let's not forget that the Denver Broncos lost to the San Diego Chargers last season when Ed Hochuli's whistle malfunctioned. I'm being sarcastic. It didn't malfunction, he just blew it TOO SOON!
It's needless to say that officials make mistakes--they can surely put the err in error. Love 'em or hate 'em, they will always be a part of sports--so maybe I should just try to get used to them.
