No sport will ever be perfectly objective. I think soccer is maybe the only one we can say can really minimize the impact of a ref but even that’s BS.
There needs to be some level of consistency between each ref crew but to think refereeing will ever be completely objective is unrealistic.
Baseball definitely the closest, a balk is probably the only call that can’t be made objectively, but it’s such a minor thing anyway.
There’s still a lot of rules in baseball that the written definition of what is and isn’t rule breaking is left up to the umps judgement. Check swings, turning to second after reaching first, etc. Soccer has a lot less rules and they’re less subjective. Plus MLB umps can just do whatever they want without repercussion.
Agreed, but I think those things are easier to “make objective” in the rulebook than say determining what constitutes a legal/illegal tackle, what behavior deserves a yellow card, etc.
It’s hard to officiate what one person is doing, but when you bring physical contact with another person into the mix, i feel like the complexity increases exponentially .
