There's a good column by Thomas Sowell today touching on Major League Baseball's new policy of monitoring umpires' ball and strike calls. Apparently, the umpires are braying against MLB's attempt to impose some accountability.

Whatever the merits of each side in this issue, it all sounds much like judges complaining about restrictive sentencing guidelines and the "three strikes and you are out" laws which lock up repeat felons for life. From neither the umpires nor the judges is there the slightest acknowledgement that their own willful and arbitrary behavior is what brought on this reaction...

...Some umpires called "high strikes," some called "low strikes" and some were said to retaliate against pitchers or batters who complain by adjusting the size of the strike zone to their disadvantage.

The arbitrary, capricious strike zones imposed by individual umpires has been a longstanding blight on Major League Baseball. It's gotten a bit better recently, but I've watched way too many umpires who really believed in their heart of hearts that fans were coming out to the ballpark to watch them work (anybody remember Eric Gregg?)

And believe it or not, the officiating in the NHL is even worse.