I also thought he was a cutie the first time I saw him, too....I'm beginning to wonder.... wink

I wish our resident ump would weigh in with his honest opinion on this whole thing. Where has he been?

We are very lucky to have such an honest, open real-life MLB ump sharing stuff with us. I can't wait to hear what he has to say about the Doug Eddings incident (FYI - our ump is NOT Eddings).

...and how do you know this??

Unless he's Jim or Cyd, and he's not, he doesn't know for sure. He may have an educated guess, but it doesn't matter. The real Ump will not confirm or deny his identity here, and no one should waste their time speculating or trying to "out" him. This board has been down this road before.

Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to "out" anyone or even to "in" Doug Eddings. I was just commenting that our Ump's failure to post isn't because he's Eddings himself, and thus unavailable. I didn't even think about the other side of it.

I hope our Ump will give us his take on this, that's all I'm saying.

Sorry if I shouldn't have said that or revealed something I shouldn't. And I DO know factually that our ump is not Doug Eddings even though I'm not Jim or Cyd.

We're not trying to "out" anyone...we're just playing.... wink

Well, I think Red is right that he's not Eddings, because if I recall from earlier discussions somewhere, it was obvious Ump wasn't a replacement umpire himself, so this would mean he couldn't be Eddings.

But playing is fun, MS.

What an embarrassment to MLB baseball the AL and NLCS umps have been! I'm a St. Louis fan whose Cardinals got screwed big time yesterday by plate ump Phil Cuzzi in a "we can prove we're worse then the ALCS umps" show. His strike zone was all over the place! I don't blame Edmonds for getting ejected - the strike called on him in a critical game situation (the pitch would have been, and should have been, ball four)was not a strike by anyone's standards. Then, Tim McClleland shielding Cuzzi as a bodyguard after both ejections, like "he's my bitch, stay away from him!"
The ALCS umps have been equally horrendous, first the Doug Eddings gaffe, then the Ron Kulpa (St. Louis' own)blown catcher interference non-call.
These are the BEST umps MLB has, right? Where is Augie Donatelli when we need him! (I'm showing my age.)

These are the BEST umps MLB has, right? Where is Augie Donatelli when we need him! (I'm showing my age.) [/QB][/QUOTE]

It's before my time, but it's on some video tape highlight thing that I own.

You mean the same Augie Donatelli that completely tanked the 10th innning of Game 2 in the 1973 world series? When he was sprawled out all over the ground and never saw that Buddy Harrelson wasn't touched, but called him out anyway?

Josh

Well if we are looking for Umps that have never made a mistake, the players will be calling their own games.

The ball-strike calls in both series have been generally abominable. MLB needs to fix this.

And it's not just baseball. A couple of football games were sidetracked by bad officiating.

The Falcons attempted a game winning field goal against the Saints and they missed. But wait, a flag. They called holding on a defensive lineman! Holding on a DL has to be one of the rarest calls in the NFL. Sure enogh they get to rekick and the Falcons win.

The ND-USC game, while exciting, had a couple of questionable decisions at the end of the game. Matt Leinart, the USC QB, fumbled out of bounds at the officials appeared to give USC a very favorable spot. Then he scored when a teammate helped push him into the endzone, which is illegal.

The Falcons attempted a game winning field goal against the Saints and they missed. But wait, a flag. They called holding on a defensive lineman! Holding on a DL has to be one of the rarest calls in the NFL. Sure enogh they get to rekick and the Falcons win.

Actually, that call was the CORRECT call. It's just an obscure situation rarely seen. The defensive holding call that was made was a call that is only made on kick attempts (PAT or FG) and is a call that involves two separate situations occurring. First, the defensive lineman has to hold the offensive lineman out of the way while, second, a defensive player shoots the gap that's created by the hold in order to attempt to block the kick. Both of those happened in the Saints-Falcons play, and the correct call was made (believe it or not - and I didn't when I watched it the first time).

Phil Cuzzo has tanked his entire career - flunked out of umpire school in the late 1980's, somehow eventually hired by MLB in 1992, fired by MLB in the mid-1990's, mysteriously hired back a few years later, embroiled in repeated controversy after heated confrontation since. Yea, I'll still take old Augie over Phil any day!

Heard this from another site.....have absolutely ZERO proof it can be confirmed as of yet, maybe we can get some help.

2005 WORLD SERIES CREW
HP- CC Joe West
1B- Jeff Nelson
2B- Jerry Layne
3B- Derryl Cousins
LF- Gary Cederstrom
RF- Angel Hernandez

YEA!! Angel is back!!

Oh god, Angel and Joe West on the same crew! That's about four ejections per game!

Oh where or where could our Umpire be...? With all that's been going on lately, I was hoping to read his comments about everything, especially since I don't get the time to pop in here so often.

It's nice to see, however, that a classmate of mine from umpire school is working the series. Way cool. I'll have to give him a call and see if he can spare some tickets.

No.

Emotional claptrap by someone who has no clue about what he is talking.

Welcome back UMP! You were missed. Even if it had been you, we still would love you!

Can you explain why?

This is correct. I'll post it as a separate thread, even though it's moot now.

Thank you, but it's only for a short time longer.

Golfer 22: How is this "emotional claptrap from someone who doesn't know what he's talking about"? Are you claiming these blown calls didn't happen? TV replay shows DEFINITIVELY that these were all blown calls, and let's now add one more from NLCS Game 6 - the missed tag at second base in the fifth inning of Cardinal baserunner Yadier Molina - who was called out on the "tag" by umpire Gibson. Replay again showed definitively that there was NO tag! My original point being, I can't recall a AL and NLCS series with so many bad calls - not questionable calls but blown calls - is this now the quality of major league baseball umpiring we must lower our standards to and be forced to accept?
On the plus side in Game 6, plate ump Gerry Davis and first base ump Tim McClelland were textbook - outstanding, crisp mechanics, great judgment - simply the best of the best! However, they were overshadowed by the Phil Cuzzi's (Golfer 22 - it is FACT he was fired by MLB in the mid 1990's and didn't make the cut in the 1980's at umpire school), the Ron Kulpa's, and the Doug Edding's.

Jockboy, all I did was ask Ump a question :confused:

I think it's evident he answers only certain ones.

Golfer 22 - My fault - I thought the "emotional claptrap" comment was yours - it is apparently that of MLB umpire. So, I re-direct my comment/question to him in my previous posting regarding the many blown calls (proven definitively by TV.)

I'm sure the ump would say that strike zones can't accurately be shown in any camera angle. Even the ESPN "K Zone" he doesn't feel is accurate. He feels you have to be actually in the home plate umpire's position to be able to tell the strike zone.

As for the play in NLCS game 6, the umpire's view was blocked. In his line of sight the infielder was behind the runner. There was no way he could have seen if the tag actually happened, so he made a judgment call. If none of the other umpires were close enough to see, there's not much that can be done.

And I daresay the infamous Eddings play wasn't definitively blown. There are some who say the ball clearly hit the ground. It certainly isn't unanimous that it did not.

As for Phil Cuzzi's being fired: I'm wondering if he was one of the umps who resigned on the advice of the old union head Richie Phillips, and then couldn't get his job back? That isn't quite the same thing as a firing. MLB was rather subjective about which umpires they rehired right away, and after the various legal maneuvers and arbitrations and negotiations and so on, MLB had to take many of them back and gave some financial settlement to those who weren't (such as Eric Gregg).

Didn't West also have the All-Star game and division series? Now he's getting the World Series? Seems like MLB needs to spread the opportunity a little bit more. Who assigns the post-season umps? I know these assignments are based on merit now and not necessarily tenure. Joe must have done an excellent job this year.

Dear Joe In Philly - Regarding the (non) tag play in Game 6 - the ump was screened by the runner - had no look or angle at it - he should have, after play was over and time called, talked to first base ump who would have had a pretty good angle and if that ump definitively had him safe, reverse it. Their goal is always to get the call right if it's a correctable call - this one was correctable. However, appeal afterward aside - the body language of the fielder making the (non) tag was a dive - highly unlikely that when his body is out of control diving on the errant throw off the bag that he could also catch it and tag an evading runner. Gibson should have read that aspect of the broken play. And again, before I sound like a Grade A umpire basher, I'm a high school and college umpire so I understand the positioning, angles, appeals process, etc. I just expect much better from these guys because they train so hard and are considered the cream of the crop - that missed call on my level wouldn't surprise me.
Also, the Cuzzi firing was unrelated to the umpire union action. I am referring to a St Louis Post Dispatch column on him from Monday, Oct. 17 with that info. in it - flunked out of umps school,in 1980's, hired somehow by MLB in early 1990's, fired in mid-1990's, mysteriously rehired a few years later (1999), and has been embroiled in controversy ever since. Just the kind of guy you reward by assigning him to the NLCS, right?

FEMA could've done a better job officiating those games...