Brendan O'Brien: Must do better - Why do we ask the impossible of referees?

Whatever your taste in sports, odds are it has been soured at times by a decision from a referee or an official of some other hue. Bill White, a former baseball player and commentator, got it just right when he said that umpiring is tough because, no matter what the decision, you’re always half-wrong.

Ron Luciano spent 10 years adjudicating games in Major League Baseball, most of them through the 1970s. A larger-than-life character, he published a book about his experiences too. “Umpiring is best described as the profession of standing between two seven-year olds with one ice cream cone,” he wrote.