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Old Thu Feb 13, 2003, 04:46pm
hab_in_exile hab_in_exile is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 54
Not really. The point I am making is that you are just reporting what happened, not determining what happened. In baseball, the umpire does not decide if the player is safe or out, they just report if they are. It is not up to us as officials to decide if it is a block or charge, the rulebook and the players do that, we just report on what we have seen. Sort of like looking at your watch.
If you try to get into deciding what is what you are then using your own criteria rather than what in the rulebook. If the rulebook is consistent (the print doesn't change from game to game) and we follow the rulebook, we will be consistent.
My point is that emphasizing consistency gives people licsence to freelance. This happens in baseball (ironically citing the same sport for different reasons) where it is OK for every ump to have different strike zone as long as they are consistent. That principle does not acknowledge the fact that there is only ONE strike zone in the rules. Likewise, there is only one definition of blocking in the basketball rules. We should try to stick to that rather than our own interpretation, even if ours is consistent.
Also, I know that accomplishing this is impossible, but we should try anyway. As soon as I call the perfect game I am retiring!
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