On the Human Element in Sports

Or, why we should get rid of Umpires in baseball (mostly). For consideration of my biases: I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox, and I was a (Little League) Umpire. Umpire Dana Demuth made a bad call. There is really no dispute about this. And then someone mentioned to him that he was wrong. The other umpires gathered and overturned the call. Justice was served. And then this happened:

Dana Demuth appeared to be looking at base not glove and assumed kozma had it and dropped..still dont think it should be over turned

— karl ravech (@karlravechespn) October 24, 2013

no question the right call was eventually made but that is a non reviewable play..everyone loves human error right?

— karl ravech (@karlravechespn) October 24, 2013

Human error is part of what makes sports great. We can go down numerous rabbitholes about how games turn on people blowing sure things followed by someone else making highly improbable plays. See Asante Samuel blowing a sure interception just before the too ridiculous to believe David Tyree catch. That's why nobody talks about the Perfect Pats of 2007.

But here's the thing: sports is about Fallible Humans vs. Fallible Humans, not Fallible Humans vs. Fallible Humans vs. Fallible Humans. The teams should not have to fight a coin flip over whether what actually happened is counted to have happened. We have the technology to know, within seconds, whether an umpire made the right safe/out call. Next year, there will be coaches' challenges. But why not just always get it right? It wouldn't be that hard.

And the same argument holds for balls and strikes. We have enough cameras in all stadiums that we know exactly where every pitch goes, instantly. There are websites where you can watch the ball/strike calls for any game seconds after it happens: Look at this.

The Human Element is an essential part of the charm of sports. And that is why it must be removed from sports.