Ryan Robbins responded to an original article by Pamela Sweeney:
> >
> >Shepherd, a St. Paulite who also referees in the league said, "After looking
> >at the tape, I felt it should not have been a disqualification.  (Brink)
> >never really punched (Reimann).  He pulled out of a headlock and
> >straight-armed him, he didn't really punch him, and he even missed him
> >with that.  It was not a deliberate punch."
>
> Excuse me, but what the hell's this? Officials supervisors cranning
> their necks to a television screen to see if a player actually landed
> a punch? I feel bad for the officials who did that game. Whether a
> player is fighting and should be disqualified is strictly an on-site
> judgment call that should belong to the officials at the game and not
> be left to the scrutiny of replay. Fighting shouldn't be tolerated in
> any sport, and the criteria should not be whether punches were
> actually landed. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the officials
> in that league become a bit more timid when it comes to taking charge
> when things get out of hand, and that could cause more problems.
>
 
I would have to completely disagree.  Nothing is worse than officials who
feel that they are beyond scrutiny of their own performance.  Officials should
be accountable for making the right calls and if they don't then their
supervisor should take corrective action.  No one is going to see every
little detail perfectly, and some mistakes are inevitable.  But if you're
going to make a call that forces someone to sit out a game, you'd better not
be guessing.  You'd better be sure.  And the supervisor apparently determined
that a gross error had been made.  I think it's terrific that the officials
involved were told that another error and they'd sit out a weekend.  That gets
the attention of all officials and tells them they'd better be focussed out
there on doing a good job.
 
It's just a matter of accountability.  Which is why I'm here at work at 7:30
ayem on a Saturday morning after being here late last night.  I spent a little
too much time on hockey this week and I haven't hit the project milestone I'm
responsible for.
 
> As a baseball umpire myself, I don't hesitate to eject players
> when they even so much as get into a pushing match. Walk away. It's
> only a game. No need to push, shove, headlock, punch.
>
 
Well I'm commissioner of a softball league and I also ump (when I can't get
someone else) and unless umps are held responsible for their performance, it
becomes too easy to lose focus and just collect the money.  There are other
umps who are overeager to throw their weight around and that can be a
problem too.  Which reminds me of a funny story (not hockey related so hit
return if you don't want a quick dose of humor).  An umpire named Tony tossed
a player out in one game for referring to him (Tony) as "a clown."  The next
game that that team had, of course Tony happened to be umping again.  So the
first base coach, a real practical joker, hollered back to the bench, "Hey,
make sure no one calls Tony the 'C' word."  The team got laughing about it
and kept yukking it up until Tony finally came over and said, "You know and I
know what you mean but there's a whole lot of people in the stands who think
you mean something entirely different so knock it off."  It's become a
tradition that someone always hollers "Hey, make sure no one calls Tony the
'C' word," anytime he umps.  He always laughs and in fact it's one of his
favorite stories.   I dunno, maybe you had to be there...
 
Now it's back to that milestone...
 
DaveH