Man, that's the truth! Great statement!

On pitches that fool a batter that badly, often he's checking his swing and our focus shifts to whether he went too far, and not to the ball near his feet. How can anybody see everything? So a little help from your friends is in order. I continue to be amazed that the third base umpire missed it also. Maybe he was fixing on the guy's hands also.

And of course, we all know that we often make the call on sound (the sound of a foul tip or the sound of no catch or the sound of a pitch nicking a guy's uniform or shoe), so the plate umpire missed that sound too.

Was away for a few days, traveled down to Baltimore to see a game.

I meant as BU, not as PU. PU its obviously pretty easy to get blocked out on the curve ball... particularly when the batter is crowding. Not sure if U2 was on the inside on this play (not going to reload the video). Sorry about the confusion.

U3 has a great look at this play, U1 a pretty good look. Even U2 would have a decent look, not great but I'm sure he'd have an opinion on it. PU's only info is the sound, which isn't actually that loud in this play. Maybe a case of "did that just happen" at the MLB level, they don't see crazy stuff like this nearly as much as amateur guys do. I recall a play two years ago on a balk that should have been killed, but an overthrow was made and the runner got 2 bases. They just don't see the wacky stuff.

And btdt makes an excellent point, but one I previously combated - we all know that feeling where we feel like we might have missed one, or at least wish we had one more look at it. As BU, it has not happened to me yet on a ball at the batter's feet. In A to a righty, if it hit the front foot and trickled to 3B, that's a tough one from A. Pretty elementry from B or C. In a 3 man crew, the only thing that is an understandable miss is a slight slight skim, but a slight skim is going to end up foul anyways unless its a running swing becoming a bit more popular in baseball these days.

Never say never.