> I should clarify something.  This comment was made based on experiences
> early in my umpiring career, when I started umping games with little
> kids.  I certainly did not mean for this to sound like I intentionally
> made the wrong call, but I remember the first game in which I called
> balls and strikes, the score was 40-4.  Many other games I did early in
> my umping days had similar scores.  In those situations, in part to avoid
> humiliating kids who have to go home and tell dad they lost by 36 runs,
> I may have made the wrong call, but not to ruin the game of baseball.
> Now that I am umpiring high school and semi-pro games in the Seattle
> area, I call everything exactly as I see it.  The players I am
> dealing with now are old enough to handle the off days, when they lose by a
> couple dozen.
 
The point I was trying to make is that there are some calls in hockey, as in
baseball, that are not judgement calls: "Did the puck cross the goal line?",
"Did the runner beat the throw?", "Were there too many men on the ice?", "Did
they bat out of order?", etc. The score should have no bearing on how these
are called.  On the other hand there are judgement calls: most hockey penalty
situations, baseball interference situations, etc. that some officials will
call differently based on the score or time left in the game.  Most players
will accept this if the calls are consistent and appear fair.
 
> baseball game, you would be damn lucky to have me as an umpire.  Also,
> correct me if I am wrong, but you have never been an official in an
> organized sports league, have you?
>
 
My point was that it is very frustrating to have a referee that isn't
consistent which you seemed to be suggesting was OK.  I have in fact umpired
many organized baseball games, but I don't consider myself a league umpire.  I
do understand your comment about the 40-4 games, and I too would expand my
strike zone a bit, but wouldn't ever make a call I knew to be obviously wrong.
 
In the BU/Maine game my point is that the referees made a judgement call that
the awarding of the penalty shot was not warranted, and missed the too many
men call.  The first penalty is a judgement call which many H-L posters have
disagreed with, but the second was an error and should have been called no
matter what.
 
-John Hughes
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