Phil Cuzzi's Vision

[mikebran]

I won't participate in pro umpire criticism. I saw it, watched replays, and watched the interview of the crew chief.

Obvious Dept: The best professional umpires make mistakes, sometimes.

But what I think is interesting to discuss is the 6 umpire system, under the category of WHY? Doesn't it seem that more often than not over the years you have the line umpire getting near a play and missing it?

Seems to me that fair and foul is pretty well covered with 4 umpires. And last night maybe by being THAT close it contributes to the miss.

Of course the 2 extra umpires are getting big playoff money, so from umpires perspective it won't change.

But... really... does it help? How often have you seen a call that you say could only have been made (correctly) with 6 umpires.

[jwwashburn]

Originally Posted by mikebran

I won't participate in pro umpire criticism. I saw it, watched replays, and watched the interview of the crew chief.

Obvious Dept: The best professional umpires make mistakes, sometimes.

But what I think is interesting to discuss is the 6 umpire system, under the category of WHY? Doesn't it seem that more often than not over the years you have the line umpire getting near a play and missing it?

Seems to me that fair and foul is pretty well covered with 4 umpires. And last night maybe by being THAT close it contributes to the miss.

Of course the 2 extra umpires are getting big playoff money, so from umpires perspective it won't change.

But... really... does it help? How often have you seen a call that you say could only have been made (correctly) with 6 umpires.

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?