The worst officials in pro sports ...

Gotta be the NBA. I have no idea what constitutes a foul or traveling anymore. If I recall correctly, traveling is anything past the first 1.5 steps, and a foul is when you create contact that alters the shot. I have literaly seen players cradle the basketball under their arm like a football and take three full steps toward the basket, no call. Push a guy in the paint to alter his shot - no foul. Graze a guy's arm after he has released - foul. It's more about what the refs allow to happen than it is about calling the game by the rules.

Baseball is a close second, and not just because of the blown call by the first base ump that ruined the perfect game last week. At least that guy admitted his mistake. I'm trying to figure out when they changed the rule requiring that you need to tag a runner or a base to record an out. Now, the only thing that matters is "did the ball beat the runner?". Forget about whether or not the runner slid under the tag, or the shortstop missed the bag. Details, details.

The problem with basketball and baseball is that outcomes of games hinge on the decisions of the officials. They aren't merely enforcing the rules, they are interpreting them. Very bad for those sports, because with most officials bias creeps in, and we're not paying to see them perform or affect the outcome.

In football and hockey, the officials enforce the rules, they don't interpret them. The rules are defined clearly, and if the officials see a violation, they call it. The problem with these sports is that the games are so fast, the officials miss some calls. Which is why football (and hockey, to a limited extent, mostly to review goals) both use replay. Not because the officials make bad decisions, but because both sports move so fast that the officials are bound to miss some of the things that are happening. Replay allows that to be corrected.

It's amazing to me that basketball and baseball officials miss so many calls considering that they know exactly where to look on every play! The sports don't move that fast, and all you have to do is follow the ball to know where the action is. Basketball is played on a relatively small surface, compared to the other sports, so there's not that far to move to see what is going on. Nothing is ever out of eyesight. Baseball, despite the size of the field, has the added advantage of being able to predict where most of the plays will occur and (theoretically) station officials to have the best possible view. Compare that to football and hockey, where the officials are running up and down the field on every play. That's why you don't see fat boys working NFL and NHL games, but baseball will always have more than it's share of Joe Wests (who got fined recently for making terrible calls).

Bottom line, in football and hockey the officials call what they see, and they work hard to see most of it. In basketball and baseball, officials call whatever they want, whether they see it or not.