Phil Cuzzi's Vision

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by RPatrino

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.

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.

[RPatrino]

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

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by rpatrino

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

:d ...

[Paul L]

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.

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

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

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.

[JR12]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

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.

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!