The Zebras Are Out Of Control

I really wanted my first post to be about something fun or witty; something to make people think, but unfortunately it is going to be a rant....and it isn't going to be about the striped horses of the picture.

The zebras I am referring to in the title are sports officials. Those men or women who are in charge of keeping the game moving smoothly and ensuring the players are following the rules. They are supposed to blend in to the game and be invisible to the audience. After all people didn't pay way too much money to see a bunch of zebras skate or run around (as much fun as that would be), they can go to the local zoo and see that for $10 or less (maybe a bit more in TO but the difference is worth it). In no way are the officials there to take away from the players or the game itself. Or are they? Did I miss a memo?

A few mistakes here and there are to be expected, they are human after all, but to miss obvious penalties or to call them so lopsided it seems the one team is shorthanded the whole game, is absolutely ludicrous. No professional sport is free from incompetent officials. Take the National Hockey League for the most blatant offence; Saku Koivu, a star player; on a French Canadian team, hmmmmm, gets a stick in the eye and none of the four on ice officials saw it....he was skating towards the net with the puck for heaven's sake. That disgusted me so much I stopped watching hockey.

So I turned to Major League Baseball. I can't cover everything but what is a strike? Apparently it changes from umpire to umpire and can even change for the same umpire in the middle of any given game. The most recent blunder I saw, if you can call missed calls a blunder any more, happened in the White Sox game two weekends ago I believe. A batter was in the middle of a swing and the ball hit him in the chest and was given first base. The thing that the announcers were questioning was whether the batter was able to check his swing. It doesn't matter! From what I recall, correct me if I'm wrong it has been several years since I've played, if a batter is in the motion of swinging and the ball hits him, it is a foul ball. He could have corkscrewed himself or barely taken his bat off his shoulder when the ball hit him, it is still a foul ball.

One last rant and I'll end this post. I went to the NLL championship game and Buffalo was shorthanded ten times compared to Colorado's one. Does that sound right to you? It doesn't to me.

It is time to take the power back and control the zebras before people start going to poker matches instead.