The Officials Bite Back

In the hullabaloo of praising individual athletes, sometimes we forget about the other individuals on the field of play: the officials.

Despite them trying to remain nameless, unbiased, and draw as little attention to themselves as possible, we forget that they too are people. It’s possible for them to be subjective, make mistakes, and show emotion.

Wednesday night’s Celtics-Magic game featured Kendrick Perkins getting ejected after being tagged for his second T. Eddie Rush, the referee who called the second of the two, could have rescinded the technical,] but chose not to. The NBA decided to rescind the technical today.

You see that technical would have been Perkins’ seventh of the playoffs, which would cause him to be suspended for Game 6 of the series. You can watch the video here of what Perkins “did” to get him his technicals.

If you ask me, I side with Doc Rivers. I have no idea why Perkins was called for his first tech, and it seems that Rush had it out for him when he whistled him for his second one. Perhaps emotions got the best of Rush in that situation.

The same could be said of umpire Bob Davidson after his explosive confrontation with Rays manager Joe Maddon in the Red Sox-Rays game Tuesday night. After Carl Crawford and Maddon argued vehemently about balls and strikes with Davidson, it looked like the synapses in Davidson’s brain went bonkers as he looked more like an over-served patron in a bar than a major league umpire.

And then “Cowboy” Joe West made it a trio of officials leaving their mark on games this week. Last night, West tossed both White Sox starting pitcher Mark Buerhle and manager Ozzie Guillen after he called Buerhle for his second balk of the game.

A White Sox pitcher has not been called for two balks in the same game in 17 years, and Buerhle had been tagged with one balk in his last three seasons, according to the Hardball Talk blog. West, who is known as a stickler for the rules and will look for specific violations, is no stranger to having his name dragged through mud by players and coaches either.

So while I am sure that all three of these guys were trying to do their jobs, it’s pretty obvious that their emotions (and maybe pride) got the best of them. Officials aren’t immune to being human, and it’s important to remember that they’re not robots, but people like us.

Honestly with as much pressure as there is on NBA referees and MLB umpires, I’m surprised that we don’t see emotional outbursts like this much more often. Perhaps we don’t because they’re professionals and are among the best officials in the business.

Just in case, I’m still going to be sure I never cross Davidson though.