On umpires and referees

This post is referencing a point from Buster Olney's column today (8/5/2011) regarding Yadier Molina's five game suspension for bumping and spitting on Rob Drake.  I made a comment regarding this under his column, and I want to repost it here as well because it's a fair talking point and in dire need of attention from MLB:

The referees in football are stringently judged and playoff assignments are directly related to on-field performance. They are also generally professionals in something other than refereeing so they have a real-world quality to them as well. They expect respect and generally speaking give it as well. There's also the matter of a football referee sometimes being half the size (literally) of the players on the field - they're not so stupid as to get into an altercation with a player of their own accord. The X factor is the eye in the sky that the refs get to use a few times per game (in a relatively quick manner) to get a call right - sometimes I think football referees want to beg coaches to throw the red flag so they can get a second chance at a tough call.

Baseball umpires are essentially the exact opposite. They are professional umpires, with this being their full-time job for roughly eight months out of the year (most less than that). They've been bred to be the rule of law regarding the on-field activity for baseball and I don't think there's a question that it gets into the heads of umpires at times. Most umpires are very good and we hear little about them. A select few feel the need to inject themselves into the narrative and become the story - Bob Davidson and Joe West come to mind immediately.

If a referee ever goaded a football player into a shouting match they would likely be suspended and/or fired. If a baseball umpire does it...well, we see what happened this week with Tyler Colvin, right?