Myth of precision

Baseball has instituted a controversial new rule: Managers have the opportunity to challenge one umpire decision per game. The usual challenge involves a close call at a base, a force or tag. Strangely, baseball demands a flagrant error by the umpire; the call can be overturned only if the call was grossly erroneous. One might conclude the game demands accuracy but not meticulously so. This sounds like an oxymoron. Or close enough for government work.
But there is another peculiarity. There is admittedly very erratic, imprecise decisions in baseball that are routinely tolerated. Ball and strike calls are unbelievably inaccurate. And inconsistent. 
This is a classic example of symbolic virtue, the placebo of accuracy. One area is placed under the microscope and that effort seems to exonerate the game's other gross inaccuracies. Sports are filled with this fraud, but not as much as government. The incongruity is always jarring.