I agree with the lesson, but only because it's much easier to fix if you guessed wrong. A better lesson is to slow down. Pause, read & react.

When I saw the play I thought he did wait it out and used his timing.

The bottom line is, the ball comes down so quick and then bounces up and kicks left. That change of direction, the eyes can't detect the point at which the ball hit the ground.

A guy 100 feet away has a MUCH better look because the eyes do not need to change direction so quickly, you can just take in that big picture without having to shift the eyes so quickly.

Now that there is IR in MLB for home run calls, I see no need for 6 umpires in the post season. The only thing they are good for is those boundary calls, and since that's now reviewable, I say there should be a shift to a 5 man crew (one guy gets a day) for a 5 game series, and 2 separate 4 man crews for a 7 game series.

Probably won't happen though...

He hustled out, got in a great set position, paused and made the call. The trouble was, again in my opinion, that he was too close to the play take in the whole scene. I think his timing was okay.

I think this is exactly what happened. The ball came down virtually right on top of him and he barely saw it before it hit F7's glove/the ground.

Whoever said an umpire calling this from 100 feet away would have seen it better is exactly right.

6 Man Crew
 

The reason that a 6 man crew is used in the P/O's is to improve outfield coverage on catch no catch calls, and for improved F/F coverage. The only thing I can come up with regarding Cuzzi's call is he either didn't pick up the ball until after it hit fair, or he called it too soon.

Just plain missed it, it happens...
So what is the common process in determining Fair/Foul, do you look at the ground and wait for the ball to hit, or do you try and track the ball into the ground and make the determination then?

You keep your eye everlastingly on the ball. If you look at the ground you can miss the ball touching the fielder, which it did in this case. You have to see the whole play. Cuzzi needed to judge where the fielder's glove was when it touched the baseball, which was in fair territory.

Which is why Evans has recommended putting umpires around the warning track between LF & CF and RF & CF - IMO, especially with replay now, having 2 umpires on the lines is just pointless. I mean at times they are literally 20-30 feet behind the 1B & 3B umpire.

Some players and coaches were standing around the parking area before my games yesterday and were discussing this call. I joined in the conversation while getting dressed and one guy was saying that in the Mexican League playoffs that there were 6 umpires, and two of them were on the warning track in left center and right center. The guy then said one of the players collided with the umpire in left center while running down a fly ball. He said it was funny as hell, and wondered why there were umpires in the outfield. I've heard of angels in the outfield, but never umpires (except U2 w/no runners, of course). Now I know where the idea came from.

This was a gross miss. Doesn't mean he sucks as an umpire. However it makes it easier for me to get over a "gross miss" (Haven't had one for awhile) knowing that it can happen to the best of the best.

I do not see how he missed this call. This was about as bad of a miss as I have ever seen and he was in much better position than most umpires at most levels ever get to make that call. And many people are right about this does not make him a bad umpire, but how you miss something like this really is beyond belief.

Peace

Good point JR
 

Again, with the experience these guys have, to miss that one is perplexing. However, there seems to be many calls that are not one sounders or bangers in the P/O's that have been kicked this year. We all miss them at times, but this is where the top guys are to be showing why they are there

This post is a bit of a rant, so ignore it if you like.

There are issues with this that MLB and the umpire's union needs to address (IMO).

First, with a call this obviously poor (not just missed... poor - the ball was fair for two easily seen reasons: it hit the players glove in fair territory, and it hit the ground in fair territory) in a playoff game, there needs to be some repercussions for the umpire. A call this bad is poor in general, and in a playoff game, unacceptable.

Second, with the obvious conflict of interest for MLB (they clearly make more money if the Yankees advance than if the Twins advance), there needs to be transparency in how the umpire is disciplined. With a call this poor, there will be (and is) the chatter that it was favoritism.

Third, there needs to be transparency in how umpires are selected for the playoffs, for the same reason as #2, and it needs to be merit-based. Cuzzi has somewhat of a history of poor calls that favor the Yankees. Why was he assigned to this series?

MLB cannot afford to appear to be tolerating incompetent umpires in the playoffs neither can they afford the appearance of impropriety in the officiating.

The pretend commissioner is no help. In responding to the call for instant replay for calls of this kind that resulted from the poor call, he mumbled something about baseball cannot tolerate the delay. With the generally slow pace of MLB, this is obviously baloney. Further, his credibility as a man of integrity is, well, laughable. There are real and good reasons why IR for this kind of call is a bad idea (e.g. play stops with the FOUL call; you can't recreate the continuing action that would have happened, etc.), but for a man of seedy reputation to make such an obviously silly reason for no IR just adds fuel to the speculation that something is amiss.

It is one thing to say there needs to be an open process on who gets the playoffs, it is quite another to call the umpire bias. For one if you claim there is not transparency, how in the hell do you know what calls any umpire has made or not made against a particular team? I think at the very least the umpire just saw something else and made a call. Baseball is not a sport where you get many opportunities in this situation to screw a team even if you wanted to. And I doubt this umpire would jeopardize his career to help out a team that beat a team that was expected to lose from jump.

Give me a damn break.

Peace

There is a difference between "knowing" and "appearance". With Cuzzi's history, there is the appearance of bias. With the pretend commissioner's history, there is the fact of lack of integrity. With the selection process, there is little or no transparency. With the umpire rating/discipline process, there is no transparency. This is not a good combination.