Bucknor, Cuzzi pay the price

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by GA Umpire

McClelland screwed up, mentally and physically. We know that. Cuzzi and Bucknor screwed up as well. All of this focus on the umpires, did anyone notice the mental mistakes made by Hunter and Molina when Hunter was on 3B and Guerrerro hit the ball to Jeter.

First, Hunter went on that. No chance to make HP. Any descent runner should have been able to read that and know. He did stay in the run down long enough to get Guerrerro to 2B.

Second, Molina did not continue in the run down after he gave the ball to ARod and threw it too early to ARod. He stopped in the infield grass and became a spectator when he should have gotten in line on the 3B end when he threw the ball to ARod.

Did anyone (even here) notice that or were they too focused on the call of Damon at 1B? Which, to me, is a tough call since the angle would be tough and the umpire can't listen for the pop on that toss. Tough call to make at regular speed.

And, the fact that Mathis can't lay down a bunt.

So much is put on the umpires, no one is noticing how poor the play is as well. Or, no one knows what to look for to know the play is just as poor. I wonder which it is.

You're right, very few of us know very much about how the game is played, and of course, if we did, we could see that some of the play was poor enough to effectively erase or excuse any bad umpiring.

And the reality of what is now almost a dozen blown calls in this postseason alone should be effectively clouded by a dozen misplays, baserunning blunders and managerial gaffes.

That's very reasonable, objective thinking. It's the kind of thinking that is employed when most propaganda is concocted.