umpires suck

[mikech]

i just watched two separate ballgames tonight that were decided largely due to bad calls, and i'm pretty pissed off. first, the yankees were losing by a run in the 9th, with 1-on/1-out, sheffield hits into a game-ending double-play. except no! the 1st base ump says sheffield beat the throw, although replays showed clearly that he was out. yankees go on to tie it in the 9th, and giambi hits a walkoff in the 10th. the game SHOULD HAVE BEEN OVER.

ok, a little later, it's the bottom of the 9th in oakland, and the 3-2 breaking ball to the a's leadoff hitter of the inning is called ball 4 even though it hit the EXACT SAME SPOT on the outside corner as the 3-1 pitch. the leadoff walk is a killer, of course, and the mets end up losing on a 2-out double.

so the yankees win and mets lose, the worst of both worlds, and both because of bad umpiring. you're saying, yeah yeah, whatever, happens all the time. i say, precisely. THIS [censored] HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! why do we still even have umpires or referees or line judges, etc etc? why haven't they all been replaced by computers and electronic sensors and whatever newfangled technological doodads that can ensure 99.99999999% accuracy?

i've heard ppl say they want to retain the "human element" in sports, so they don't want to rely solely on technology. that's just dumb. obviously, as instant replay is used in the nfl and occasionally in the nba, most ppl care about GETTING THE CALLS RIGHT. the only "human element" i want to see in sports is between the athletes competing, not for their competition to get decided by the human error of an idiot ref.

i mean, in the 100m dash in the olympics, should we rely on the human eye to determine which runner crosses the finish line first? so why do we leave it up to the human eye for a play at first in the world series (read: don denkinger, royals-cards '85)? or for a serve at match point in wimbledon? or for whether a foot's on the line when a crucial 3-pointer is launched in the nba finals?

anyway, this is just a rant cuz the mets are in a tailspin and tonight's games ticked me off, but i seriously would love to see the day when there are no longer any refs/umps/etc in sports. is there current technology that would make this feasible? if not, how far into the future would it exist, in 10 yrs? in 20? for me at least, that day won't come soon enough.