I'm totally with you – 99.99% of ref calls are a legitimate attempt to arbitrate the rules and almost every mistaken call is better explained by human error than malice.
My point is the existence of the question...It's possible that someone could wager $10,000 on some player striking out and give the ump $5k for making sure the slightly-outside ball is a called strike. And with all $150,000,000,000 sloshing around sports right now, we'd be foolish to think that _never_ happens.
I have no idea how many calls are intentionally blown for money, but I'm confident it's not zero.
My point is the existence of the question...It's possible that someone could wager $10,000 on some player striking out and give the ump $5k for making sure the slightly-outside ball is a called strike. And with all $150,000,000,000 sloshing around sports right now, we'd be foolish to think that _never_ happens.
I have no idea how many calls are intentionally blown for money, but I'm confident it's not zero.