Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for December 27, 2021

All officials get their share of lumps, but one I remember is the time where the catcher stepped away for a pitch out while the pitcher went with a fastball right down the middle.

“Running without stopping?” More like acting & flopping without stopping!

Hockey refs & linesmen.

What sport the ones in the third panel?

Sorry, NHL refs are amazing – skating backwards.

You can sacrifice a whole bunch of goats.

NHL referees and linesmen take the most hits. I’ve seen several taken out of the game, stitched up, and back in before the period ended.

I refereed three sports. One season, I wore a pedometer for both varsity soccer and varsity football games. I worked football in the midfield positions (umpire, head official, back judge). Averaged about 8-9 km for both football and soccer, but the highest total was 12km for a high school playoff game when I was a deep official for two pass-happy teams that also punted a lot.

I refereed football ( soccer ) on all levels from FIFA matches to kids games for over 30 years before retiring. In the course of a professional match, a good soccer referee will run between 7.5 – 12 miles – forwards, laterally, and backward. A good soccer referee never stops moving during the 90+ minutes of the match. Even when is overseeing a penalty, he/she is moving in order to watch everything on the field of play.

Based on all the foregoing, I would have to rank the toughest officiating jobs as hockey and then soccer. But I think the third would be one not even mentioned yet, basketball. Officials are running constantly (and oftentimes backwards) and about the only break they get is during free throws. And just like soccer, they still have to be in the correct position to look for fouls if the FT misses and the ball is rebounded and put into play.

Umpires running? They only run to the nearest buffet.

Do they count all the soccer flopping?

MLB is ruled out due to allowing Angel H. and screwing up replay.

I give up. Who are the guts in black, last panel.

Try calling a match that doesn’t stay on a single level for 90% of it (Australian football).

Hockey officials

LOL

One word: rugby.