I had some football on in the background over the weekend. I saw a quarterback get sacked and appear to have possibly fumbled the ball, and a pile ensued. Other defensive members of the home team gathered around excitedly and pointed the other away, but all the refs kept on just waving their arms without signaling. As the pile became smaller, the crowd went silent in anticipation. Once the ref got a good enough look at it, he stood back, waited a beat, then triumphantly shot his arm out the other way confirming the recovered fumble. 70,000 people went wild. As the ref, that's gotta be so satisfying.
That made me think, in all of sports, what as an official feels like the coolest call you can make? There's probably some fun ones in baseball like a good, dramatic strike three, or maybe an out at the plate after the catcher shows you the ball*. Nothing in basketball or hockey seem all that cool as it's all usually punitive (though the NBA refs certainly milk the calls from time to time).
*On the less dramatic side, there's that one when there's a close but obvious out at first and the ump just kind of stands there for a moment, then calmly but firmly pumps out their arm to signal the out. That seems like fun too.
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