MLB Mlb Umpires

CHICAGO -- Major league general managers either have no interest in expanding the current replay system or they realized the futility in debating something that ultimately owners and commissioner Bud Selig must decide.

Either way, they concluded their first day of formal meetings without any discussion of expanding the system.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, presided over the Tuesday morning meeting and said that there was discussion about tweaking the current system, but nothing about adding more use of replay.

CHICAGO -- Expansion of instant replay is expected to be one of the topics discussed when baseball general managers begin their formal meetings on Tuesday, but one of its longtime proponents is not optimistic that his group can effect any change.

"Whatever the instant replay discussion is, I'm going to raise my hand [in favor]," said White Sox GM Kenny Williams. "However, I don't know at the end of the day that vote is going to mean much."

This postseason was full of mistakes by umpires, leading to a national debate about whether the use of replay should be expanded beyond its current scope. Williams said he's been pushing for the use of replay for seven or eight years, but he's come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what he or other general managers want.

NEW YORK -- Bud Selig said he has not changed his opinion on expanding the use of instant replay, but baseball's commissioner left the door open a crack, saying the issue would be addressed in the offseason.

"I think there are other ways we can make corrections," Selig said. "During the offseason we'll review everything."

It could come up at the GM Meetings, Nov. 9-11 in Chicago.

Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

If you're going to criticize the umps when they blow a call, you have to praise them when they get one right, as they did in the fifth inning on Jimmy Rollins' shoestring catch and double play (details below).

The crew initially didn't rule that Rollins doubled off Hideki Matsui but huddled and eventually got the call right, a good moment for the men in blue in a month where it has seemed to be all bad and for a crew that was picked specifically because of its World Series experience.

Several weeks worth of blown calls by its umpires has prompted Major League Baseball to make a switch in the way it staffs its signature event. Rather than use at least one umpire who has never worked a World Series -- something it has done in 24 of the last 25 seasons -- MLB's crew will be composed entirely of umps with previous experience in the Fall Classic.

Crew chiefs Joe West, Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis will work the World Series, which opens next Wednesday in either New York or Anaheim, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt.

MLB normally draws from the pool of 24 umpires that worked in the Division Series for the World Series (umpires can not work two consecutive rounds of the postseason), and C.B. Bucknor, who missed two high-profile calls in Game 1 of the Red Sox-Angels ALDS, was in line to work the Fall Classic this year until the switch.

Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

With the World Series matchup almost a foregone conclusion, here's a question to ponder. A-Rod or Ryan Howard? Who's having the better postseason?

Rodriguez joined Howard and Lou Gehrig as the only players to drive in a run in eight straight postseason games Tuesday night, making it a perfect time to draw the comparison.

Let's hold hands and pray. Someday soon, when Bud Selig finally is removed from the commissioner's chair like a rotting tree, we can only hope his successor realizes October is waning. Pro and college football continue to tickle the American consciousness on every demographic level -- male and female, old and young, reality and fantasy -- and reduce our national past-its-time to secondary programming. And when we do see gripping story lines develop, from a possible Yankees-vs.-Joe Torre matchup in the World Series to the Angels and the inspiration they draw from the late Nick Adenhart, what gets in the way?

Wretched umpiring.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Phil Cuzzi, the umpire who missed a call down the left-field line that helped cost the Twins their game Friday night at Yankee Stadium, was fired as a minor league umpire in 1993.

According to a June 1999 story by The Associated Press, Cuzzi was working at a hotel bar in July 1999 when he approached National League president Len Coleman and asked for a chance to get back into umpiring.

Coleman allowed Cuzzi to work his way back from the low minors, and Cuzzi was one of 25 new umpires hired in 1999 as a response to mass resignations that were part of a failed labor ploy.

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Crew chief Tim Tschida admitted that left field umpire Phil Cuzzi blew a key call in the 11th inning of the Twins' Game 2 loss to the Yankees.

In the half-inning before New York's Mark Teixeira scraped his walk-off home run over the left-field wall, Twins catcher Joe Mauer sent a bloop down the line that deflected off of left fielder Melky Cabrera's glove and then bounced in fair territory. Either way, the ball was fair. Only Cuzzi ruled that it wasn't, stripping a leadoff double from the Twins' MVP candidate.

"[He] saw the ball as foul, called what he saw," Tschida said. "Afterwards, like any close play, we went in and we looked at it and it's a clear indication that an incorrect decision was rendered."

Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

Major League Baseball is fortunate the Angels' Game 1 win over the Red Sox was never in doubt after Torii Hunter's gargantuan fifth-inning blast. Hunter's home run and John Lackey's stellar pitching made it a moot point, but the umpiring was beyond brutal.

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