In sports, referees are like judges on the ground. Just as the judgment of a judge in a country ruled by law plays an important role in covering the world’s many interests and right or wrong, there are set rules in sports, and it is the referee who decides the operation and judgment.
In fact, the game rules of sports are often difficult and complicated. If the rules don’t work properly, it can cause a lot of controversy. This is why the ‘authority of referee’ is emphasized regardless of the field.
A sense of authority in referees that has emerged as a hot topic
▲ A scuffle between player Jeon Jun-woo and referee Lee Young-jae occurred in the match between Lotte and Doosan on the 10th.메이저사이트
ⓒ NAVER TV
However, in the recent KBO league, the referee’s sense of authority is emerging as a hot topic. A typical example is the scuffle between player Jeon Jun-woo and referee Lee Young-jae in the match between Lotte and Doosan on the 10th. At the end of the 8th inning with Lotte leading 3-0, Jeon Jun-woo struck out on the 5th pitch after a game with Doosan Kim Myung-shin. Jeon Jun-woo thought that the ball that entered the course deep inside was a ball, but referee Lee Young-jae declared a strike. Jeon Jun-woo shook his head as if he could not understand the decision, but withdrew to the dugout without further appeal.
However, during the inning shift, referee Lee Young-jae suddenly approached the Lotte dugout. Referee Lee Young-jae made a displeased expression by shooting laser eyes at Jeon Jun-woo. In response, Jeon Jun-woo did not lose and became angry, and the two argued about something. In the previous situation, the reason was the disagreement about the strike decision.
Jeon Jun-woo protested against the striker or the decision, saying, “Didn’t you ask?”, and referee Lee Young-jae accepted Jun-woo Jeon’s reaction as a complaint and challenge to the decision. Lotte coaches quickly ran out and stopped referee Lee Young-jae and Jeon Jun-woo to clear the situation. This scene was also captured on the broadcast screen.
This happening caused another controversy among many baseball fans for several days. Most of the baseball fans who have watched the situation are looking at the umpire in a negative way. The media also shed light on the past misjudgments of referee Lee Young-jae, who was at the center of the controversy.
However, two things should be noted in this case. The first is the issue of trust in the fairness of referee decisions. Controversy over strike zones and referee decisions in the KBO League is not an overnight issue. In particular, in the case of the strike zone judgment, it is considered as ‘the referee’s own right’, so there are few cases where the judgment is overturned through protest. On the contrary, there are many cases in which the referee responds with a strong card of ‘exit’ to excessive or unnecessary protests.
However, in the modern age when broadcasting has become commonplace, tools such as replay screens and graphic technology complement human eyes and ears. It is not uncommon for referees to miss or make mistakes through video reading.
On this day, the referee declared a strike, but it was revealed on the broadcast screen that the course was rather deep. In the interview the next day, Jeon Jun-woo also claimed, “I missed a lot of balls. I almost got hit in the knee.” From the player’s point of view, it was a situation where there was enough doubt about the strike decision. The old logic of ‘umpires are human too, so they can make mistakes’ is no longer accepted by players who do their best to hit one in every game, or by baseball fans who have raised their eyes.
And the second was the question of the referee’s ‘consciousness of authority’. In fact, it can be seen that the latter problem was bigger than the misjudgment controversy in this situation.
At the time, Jeon Jun-woo showed a reaction that it was difficult to understand the referee’s decision, but from the player’s point of view, the view that it was a sufficient situation is dominant. However, referee Lee Young-jae’s sensitive response seemed to block the conversation itself, not acknowledging the possibility of an error in the judgment he made at all.
Authority (Authority) means the right to influence something through the position or position that a person assumes. However, ‘authority’ and ‘authority consciousness’ are different. If true authority is to naturally follow the other person based on recognition and acceptance, the sense of authority that forces you to dominate and force without a reasonable cause or process is closer to power or dictatorship.
Minimum communication must be possible
However, one thing to point out here is that it is difficult to generalize in such a way that only a specific referee is demonized or that all referees in the KBO league are like that.
In principle, protests against strike zone judgments are prohibited, but in fact, in the field recently, there are more cases where it is not a big problem as long as it is a simple appeal or two. When a player appeals, “Isn’t the ball a bit out of line?”, even if the judgment situation itself does not change, the referee responds by saying, ‘I’ll check it out and refer to it for the next decision’ and flexibly share each other’s position. there is.
Players and referees respect their respective roles, but at least communicate about each other’s thoughts and positions. Wouldn’t that rather reduce the possibility of mistakes and guarantee the authority of referees?
The reason why public opinion toward referee Lee Young-jae has deteriorated so much was because of his subsequent response, whether or not he was wrong. Even if you have strong confidence in your judgment, if you block communication itself and only assert the authority of the referee, it can rather have the opposite effect.
If referees want respect worthy of their position, quality as a ‘communicator’ should be given priority as much as correct and accurate decisions.