Ozzie Wouldn’t Have Been Surprised
Ozzie Guillen made it clear he wouldn’t be watching any postseason games this fall. It seems that when Ozzie isn’t in the playoffs, he can’t stand watching others compete and wants to get away from the game. In my mind, very understandable.
That said, if Ozzie had seen umpire Phil Cuzzi’s horrendous call of Joe Mauer’s liner down the left field line last night in the Twins-Yankees ALDS game, he probably would have had a good laugh and certainly wouldn’t have been surprised. You see, Ozzie and Cuzzi have had many run-ins and I don’t think there’s a whole lot of love going on between them.
It goes without saying that I’m a big Ozzie guy and a bit prejudiced, but looking at it objectively I have to side with Guillen in this matchup. I’ve watched a lot of Cuzzi-umpired games and I can’t remember one when he didn’t screw up a call or two or three or four for both sides.
All umps make mistakes, but Cuzzi’s blown call of a ball that clearly dropped in fair territory by a good margin and likely impacted the outcome of the game is rather inexplicable. He was right there and got it wrong.
Too bad Ozzie wasn’t there to enjoy it.
mlblogsartofthepalehose
Yeah, Cuzzi’s horrendous call cost my Twins that game. Would New York have come back to win? Probably, but we’ll never know.
Between Cuzzi and that awful Angel Hernandez, the umpire crews might need to be rotated next year. Get some new guys in there.
Thanks again to your Sox for pounding Detroit the final series though, you guys played some awesome ball that weekend!