I agree Kevin. When I saw the replay the first thing that came into my mind was, "Damn, Cuzzi is in perfect position to make this call, how can he blow it?" He was set, didn't seem to be screened or straightlined. How is it that we see a pitch come right down the pipe, yet we say... "ball"..... ?

The human mind is a mysterious thing.

Look, we're not insulting your wife, here. We're criticizing the dreadful call by a very highly paid professional, who performs his work in public.

So why is your first instinct to insult us for seeing and stating the obvious? Perspective is not a bad thing. Why do you want to close yourself off?

My last blown "easy one" was a mysterious mind thing all the way. It was headfirst slide into first on a pressure play. I got a great angle, I was set, I waited, listened, saw it right, heard it right, told my tongue exactly what to do (the guy was out by about two feet), and then tongue said safe!

I literally said the wrong word and waved my arms and everything. I don't even know why or how. It just came out.

The coach didn't even come out on me.

It hasn't happened since. But I bet it will someday.

It was easier for me than for Phil, because I'm lowly paid.

Lucky for us we only do 'low quality' ball.

:d ... ;)

Not to defend the guy, but . . .
 

Putting myself into Cuzzi's shoes, I could see three things that might have caused me to make the same call.

First, he might have been thinking as the ball came down 'fair, fair, if the ball touches the glove, it's fair. Nope, ball seems to have missed glove, foul!'

Second, at the speed at which events were occurring, he might have simply mis-seen where the ball hit the ground, especially as the ball seemed to veer foul sharply after impact.

Third, he seemed to rush the call. Had he replayed the action in his mind for another half-second, he might have realized that it was fair and made the right call.

That being said, he blew the call, it was a bigtime call, so he blew it bigtime. May we all learn from his mistake. Thanks to JR12 for posting the link.

Defend the call
 

Yes, he kicked the call. The ball landed within a foot of the foul line. The ump was in position and made the wrong call. Did it matter that he had a split second to find the ball in his field of vision, the fielder touched the ball and that the ball took a sharp rebound? No, none of that matters.

Another call for instant replay - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

What does matter is that there is a major distinction between a bad call on a banger like this {ball/strike, fair/foul and safe/out} and taking a "mightier than thou" attitude displayed on this thread. Perhaps he was thinking the fielder was going to make the catch and was surprised when he dropped it. It was a serious Matt Holliday moment. His timing was off a bit and in the rush from safe/out he erred on fair/foul. But my point is, let it go already. I'm not referring to any discussion about the call, just those "I-walk-on-water" comments coming out of the fanbox. I'll defend the little SOB.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...yhoo&type=lgns

Ozzie Guillen doesn't like him, some newspaper said he called a pitch incorrectly back in April, and a different newspaper says he missed 2 pitches in a Spring training game in 2004....hmmmmm he must just be terrible:rolleyes:

There were several factors which played into this call 1) Did the fielder touch the ball? 2) (If #1 is yes) Where was the ball touched? 3) (If #1 is no) Where did the ball touch the ground?

Look at the post game interview video at :57. You can see how fast the play actually happened. He got it wrong but you saying that it "couldn't have been an easier call" isn't right.

I think that's what happened to Cuzzi. Right after he made that call I bet he asked himself: "What the #@*k did I just do?" Timing is everything.

Why 6 umps? Good question.
Why do Post Offices have a union employee work the lobby to show people how to use the self explanatory Self Service machine? They have extra guys because the union asked for it is my guess-I could be wrong but, that is my guess.

I cannot remember any calls in the postseason that were nailed because of extra umps. I can remember a lot of the kicked by them extra guys, though. Can anybody ever remember a fair/foul call like this in the regular season?

I'm wrong again.

I'll take that as an affirmation.

I remember a story that a MLB Umpire had a play at 2nd base. He had a brain fart and signaled out, but verbalized "safe". The runner asked "well, what was I? Safe or out?)
Umpire replied "40, 000 people just saw me bang you out"
The runner ran off the field without another word! :)

It looked quite obvious in real time that the ball was touched by F7 in fair territory, dropped towards the foul line and still landed 4 inches approximately in fair territory. He was 20 feet away with a perfect look.

That being said, I blew a pickoff at first today. Had the runner as out. Offensive team squawked a little. I asked my partner later and he said it looked like I got it wrong. Oh well, we all blow calls now and then.

I read something about the 6-umpire system where the MLB guys were saying that it's very tough if you're the LF or RF umpire because the ball is coming down almost on top of you all the time. They said fair/foul calls right on the pole are incredibly hard because you have no angle and you're following the ball straight down. To me, it looked like the ball got right on top of Cuzzi really quickly. I think if he were further away, his timing might have been better.

I see no reason to use six umpires in the post season.