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Think about how relevant this is to baseball umpiring (as well as other sports officiating, of course). We as impartial arbiters see/hear things that are often very different from what one side sees or what the fans see. I was talking about this with Bob Jenkins recently in the locker room following a recent doubleheader that we worked.
Bob had mentioned that there were actual psychological studies that were done to illustrate how the human mind can easily be fooled to believe something happened when, in fact, it didn't insofar as plays on the field.
I mentioned this because of a wacker I had at first base when I was in the middle of the diamond. Nothing special--just a typical wacker of a play where I banged out the batter-runner. What the offense and their fans saw was the BR a step or two past the bag when they heard the call of, "He's out!" However, what I saw and heard was the ball beating said BR to the bag by a hair.
I didn't have any bias as to whether I wanted him to be safe or out. The offense's judgment, however, was clouded by their desire for their BR to be safe. I'd bet this affected what they saw.
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