I’ve been watching a bit of baseball lately, and i’ve noticed quite a few reversals of calls made by officials. The same same goes for football and tennis. They have machines that get the calls right every time, but still rely on humans to make the initial ruling. This brings up 2 questions. First- why not just get rid of the humans and enjoy a mistake-free game? And second- why are there no penalties for officials who make bad calls? Let’s say you’re the first base official at a baseball game and you get a couple of calls wrong, which are then overturned after a needless and lengthly delay. Same with balls and strikes- we see the same guys make the same mistakes again and again. But there’s no accountability. I’m pretty sure we all have protocols in place to punish us for repeated mistakes at our jobs in the real world. How about 3 blown calls and you’re suspended without pay for a game? Fat chance, because the need for humans and the lack of accountability are both the result of powerful unions that will keep the refs working, getting paid, and never paying for mistakes. Every major sport has a labor contract with it’s officials. Remember the fiasco when the NFL refs went on strike? They know that fans can’t abide replacement officials, and even though most of the work can now be done by robots, we won’t be making the switch anytime soon. So the next time you see a botched call, go right agead and boo the official, because that’s the only negative feedback he’s going to hear.