Just like sports need referees, society needs judges. Respect their tough jobs. | Letter

In the past few weeks, the Milwaukee Brewers have had some calls by umpires go against them that seemed to be wrong. The luxury of replay allowed us to see over again how the plays went and what the correct calls seemed to be. However, after some questioning of the calls by the Brewers coaches and no changes by the umpires, the game went on.

Team sports of all kinds could not exist without officials to enforce the rules of the game. If players, coaches and fans didn’t accept the judgments of these officials, the games would fall into chaos. Some of us have seen that happen in informal games. Being a referee or umpire is a tough and imperfect job, and the existence of sports at all levels depend on them.

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The same is true in all kinds of social institutions in our society, like education, business or government. All these institutions have necessary rules, and it is important that we who participate in them “play by the rules.” Otherwise, these institutions collapse like a sports game without referees. That doesn’t mean we can’t change the rules if we feel it’s necessary, like the administrators of professional sports sometimes do, and like amendments to our country’s constitution. We might also have to occasionally remove an official who doesn’t act fairly.

Let’s learn a lesson from the successful sports in our country and respect people (like judges) who have the tough job of making sure people “play by the rules” and everyone is treated fairly. Let’s also insist that the leaders of our institutions set fair rules and live by them, especially our political leaders.

Doug Walters, Colgate

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cases of bad calls against Brewers show tough, imperfect jobs of umps