Even if you live in Finland and the only sport you follow was pesäpallo, you probably heard something about the replacement referees in the NFL. It was something of a debacle. Add in the lockouts in the NBA and NHL, and it looks like the ol' folks at Major League Baseball are running the most normal of the four major North American sports.

But there were replacement umpires not that long ago. There was also a time when Bob Davidson was out of a job. Matthew Callan of The Classical takes an in-depth look at the history of the umpires' strike of 1999. It's a fascinating look at ...

... oh, you know. Pesäpallo. The national sport of Finland? Well, I guess there's never a bad time for this:

But the umpire article is fantastic. Read that, too.