phil cuzzi

phil cuzzi

I sat at a local pub this Friday night taking in Game Two of the ALDS of the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees. I thought it would be an interesting game to be sure. If Minnesota would win this game, they would split the series with Games Three and Four at the Metrodome. With two wins at home, they could win the series without ever returning to New York. However, this did not happen.

In a game that proved to be a game of broken oppurtunities for the Twins, it appeared that even late inning blown calls were fitting to a game not going their way.

Starters Blackburn and Burnett pitched near perfection keeping their opponents hitless and guessing.

In the 4th inning, Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez overran second base on a single with two outs and got caught before teammate Delmon Young stepped on home plate.

Throw in countless questionable pitch calls and many knew this game was going to be a close one. After Minnesota scored in the eighth inning to lead the game 3-1 heading into the 9th.

Upon entering the bottom of then 9th, Mark Teixeira hit a lead off single followed by a clutch home run by Alex Rodriguez off of Twins closer Joe Nathan blowing a save oppurtunity.

Upon escaping the inning, the Twins would try and settle it in extras. After escaping a near miss the bottom of the 10th, the Twins would open the top of the 11th with AL Batting Champ, Joe Mauer. He opened up on a hit down the left-field line. Left-field umpire Phil Cuzzi called the hit foul despite being clearly fair by about a foot AND hitting New York left fielder Melky Cabrera's glove.

This play infuriated me not only as a Twins fan, but as a fan of baseball all-around. Especially after the following hitters Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer followed up with singles to fill the bases. I did feel a bit of justice as a Twins fan after seeing Mauer single up the middle later in the at-bat, but afterwards, a big sign pointed to this replay a showed a big problem...

That even an umpire not even 15-feet away staring right at the play can miss an obvious call.

With that said, here's what I wonder Bud Selig will try to 'ignore' in order to not instate replay on fair/foul balls...