This is where, I think, sportsmanship comes into it. Who is this somebody? Was it a competitor who noticed the problem early on then sat back waiting for the perfect time to fuck up some kid’s season, like a low rent Billy Martin?
The PGA had fans call in from home to tattle on players who were caught on camera making minor infractions. It’s crap. If you get caught by the officials fair and square, take your lumps, but when we open it up to people not directly involved trying to skew things or get extra leverage for themselves, they should keep their mouths shut.
The Pine Tar Incident (for those who don’t get the Billy Martin reference)
Thanks for that. Not being a big baseball fan, I had not heard about that. But it reminds me of the famous illegal hockey stick incident which occurred as the Montreal Canadiens were trailing near the end of a Stanley Cup Final playoff game. On a hunch, the Montreal coach had Marty McSorley’s hockey stick measured, and it was found to have an illegal blade curvature. That put McSorley in the penalty box, allowed Montreal to tie the game, then win it in OT and go on to win the championship.
Marty McSorley’s illegal stick still part of Stanley Cup Final lore | NHL.com
As for the OP, as several posters have already said, allowing officials to make exceptions to clearly stated rules starts introducing arbitrary subjectivity into rulings and should not be allowed except perhaps in very unusual and extreme circumstances.
I can think of a counterexample that proves the rule, again from hockey, and again in a playoff game. This was Brett Hull’s game-ending goal against Buffalo in the 1999 playoffs. The rule at the time (since changed) is that no part of a player’s body is allowed to be in the crease area in front of the net when scoring a goal. TV replays very clearly showed Brett’s skate in the crease. The NHL ruling on this became the subject of major contention, and it was widely believed that the fact that officials delayed in disallowing the goal and Brett’s team (Dallas Stars) had already begun celebrating and there was stuff all over the ice made it difficult for officials to now go back and disallow it. Instead NHL officials pulled some lame-ass excuse out of their rear ends about some rule that no one had ever heard of saying that the goal still counts if the player in the crease has “possession and control of the puck”. Total bullshit, and a terrible rule even if true. Much, much better to have a clear and simple rule (player must stay completely out of the crease, period) and enforce it uniformly.
It was a huge deal at the time, and got a tremendous amount of media coverage (but, of course, was of most interest to baseball fans).
Brett was one of the best players in baseball history: he is considered to be one of the best third basemen ever, he nearly hit .400 in 1980, and he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Even so, one of the things for which he is still best-known is the Pine Tar Incident, to the point that his Wikipedia entry has a two-paragraph section on it (as well as a link to a lengthy standalone entry on the incident itself).
Funny how the two athletes at the center of two famous sports scandals were named George Brett and Brett Hull.
I’ll also say that at least Owen Lloyd had the good grace to just look devastatingly disappointed. As good a baseball player as George Brett may have been, charging at the umpires like a rabid gorilla was NOT a good look. Makes one wonder what some of these athletes use for brains. Did he think that beating them up was going to get them to rethink their decision?