# Umpire saying "too close to call"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umpire-saying-too-close-to-call/656606>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 24, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umpire-saying-too-close-to-call/656606 "2013-04-24T17:21:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umpire-saying-too-close-to-call/656606/21 "2013-04-30T02:43:03Z")

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> [@Xema](#):
>
> In horse racing, there is the concept of a “dead heat” - two (or more) horses are judged to have finished so nearly simultaneously that even with the normally available high-speed photo it is not possible to decide which was ahead.

One interesting sidelight of this is that before the development of the high speed photo, dead heats were less common. The judges would pick one horse or another (and, of course, they couldn’t get a perfect angle).

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