you know, my dad is a professional umpire. he's studied at the harry wendelstedt school of umpiring, twice, and has called some pretty decent games in his life. yet even he thinks that baseball's tradition of never questioning the umpires, despite the technology available, is asinine. the simple act of consulting with the first and third base umps and asking "did he go?", when your fat arse is plonked right there in front of the area in question, is also incredibly annoying and ludicrous. do you really think that the guy sixty feet away and out at an angle from the plate can see that? better than the plate ump?! come - on!

as crap as it is, i was still far more blown away by the reffing during the NBA playoffs - particularly the games between orlando and boston. apparently it's completely okay to plow into people using your elbows, and i mean every time you come down the court, and you can touch the ref himself as much as you desire. hell, plant a kiss on his forehead why don't ya? oh, that's right; that happened too. yay orlando? it got so ridiculous at one point that orlando were literally throwing themselves down on the ground when playing defense, when it was clear there was no one around to have caused said action. they were like some half-trained stunt-monkeys, falling over awkwardly from imaginary people charging into them. utter BS. i was able to sit through one game from beginning to end without flying into a rage... and it took six cones to do so.