Mark Cuban and the New Ref Czar Get Along Swimmingly

by Marcel Mutoni

No, seriously. There’s absolutely nothing sarcastic about the headline, Mark Cuban really likes Ron Johnson, the new guy in charge of the zebras.

And the reason Cuban likes him so much, is because Mr. Johnson doesn’t just brush off his incessant pleas about the League refs’ incompetence as the ravings of a mad man (which, of course, was the case prior to this new regime).

More from the Star-Telegram:

A new process allows teams to send questionable calls to the league office on a game-by-game basis via a designated Web site. A league official reviews the play and provides the team with an interpretation.

“We like it,” Cuban said. “We have been pretty good at picking the plays we challenge. We seem to have a pretty high batting average. I’m not sure how the league uses this information going forward, though.”

“After almost every game we turn in the calls,” Cuban said. “They agree with us most of the time. Then the next game we do the same thing, and the next game and the next game, etc., etc.”

In theory, this is a great new system to have in place, but with no true follow-up regarding what the League does with the visual information they receive from teams, how effective can it possibly be?

I just can’t shake the feeling that Ron Johnson and his people simply delete these clips as soon as Cuban (and others) send them in, all the while replying, “you’re absolutely right, Mark. We’ll get right on this!”