THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Let's use replay to get ALL the calls right

Sometimes …

The people in charge can blow it.

Referees, umpires, scorekeepers, clock operators — those folks that we assume will provide a fair test can botch the job.

It’s human nature, which is why more and more sports are trying to replace fallible people with technology.

Or, in a lot of cases, using technology to make sure some critical calls are right.

The problem, and this totally baffles me, is why the suits who run various sports can decide that THIS call can be reviewed (and overturned, if necessary), but THAT call cannot.

However grievous some errors, the blunders must stand.

I mean, if the idea is to get calls right, then that should apply to everything.

The latest screw-up that could be remembered for years came last Wednesday night, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.

If you follow hockey at all, you probably know that the Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to achieve a truly difficult feat — winning a third straight Cup.

Tampa Bay trailed Colorado two games to one when the now-infamous Game 4 went into overtime tied 2-2 at Amelie Arena in Tampa.

FINALLY, at the 12-minute mark in OT, Colorado’s Nazem Kadri fired in a dramatic winner to give the Avalanche something close to a stranglehold on the series.

Except …

Colorado had too many men on the ice.

Not only that, but Kadri was the extra man — for which the Avalanche should have been assessed a two-minute penalty.

Watching replays, it’s almost beyond belief that none of the four officials on the ice saw the violation.

Yes, with line changes happening on the fly all the time in hockey, it’s common for a player to be making the last step toward the bench as play continues.

It’s part of the game, as long the player leaving the ice doesn’t touch the puck or interfere with play.

But in this instance, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon — going off for Kadri — was 42 feet from the bench.

It was a clear penalty.

Besides the officials on the ice, the NHL has a “war room” at league headquarters in Toronto.

We’re used to hearing about baseball and football decisions reviewed in New York, and this is exactly the same principle.

The hockey reviewing team sees plays from all angles, and goals can be disallowed for using a kicking motion to deflect the puck into the net, for goaltender interference, and all sorts of other questionable issues.

But somehow …

For reasons no one can explain …

Having too many men on the ice when you score a goal CANNOT be reviewed in Toronto.

Why not, exactly?

The NHL has to be embarrassed at the moment (though Tampa Bay prolonged the debate by winning on Friday night to close its series deficit to 3-2).

EXACTLY what plays in each sport should (or should not) be reviewed seems like a ridiculous argument.

If the whole idea to get all calls right, then review everything — subject to a certain number of coaching challenges, and so forth.

The notion that some things should never get to the “war room” is a gift from the NFL, which went back and forth over a couple of seasons on the issue of pass interference.

An obvious non-call on blatant interference pushed the league into making pass interference reviewable.

But a year later, so many close calls were challenged — plays that literally could have gone either way — that the NFL switched back to letting the zebras on the field decide each pass interference call.

Major League Baseball, meanwhile, will review almost everything, except …

Balls and strikes, the most subjective decisions in the sport.

It’s not like MLB trusts its umpires, either, since there are current experiments with robo-umps calling pitches.

Look, the whole point here comes down to whether you like the good old days, when a ref or an umpire might get a big one wrong.

Or do you want to slow down games, put every close play on a hundred screens in a war room someplace, but …

Don’t touch pass interference in the NFL or too many men on the ice during the Stanley Cup Final.

I’m sorry, but we can’t have it both ways.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason, and weekly beginning in October.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”