Umpire Reveals Real Problem With MLB After Ben Zobrist Called Him Out

The Chicago Cubs have had a couple big umpire disputes in the last 10 days or so and the latest controversy leaves more question marks than answers.

In case you missed it, on Tuesday Ben Zobrist got really pissed off with Phil Cuzzi on a blown strike three call. Zobrist, who almost never gets upset, got right in Cuzzi’s face. He didn’t get ejected initially, but after having another talk with the ump later in the game, Zobrist was tossed for the first time in his career.

Here’s why.

What did Zobrist say to get himself ejected for the first time ever?

"I told him, 'this is why we want an electronic strike zone.'"

— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) August 14, 2018

Here’s the play.

Anyway, unlike Angel Hernandez who admitted he was wrong on his wrong call against Anthony Rizzo that ended a game, Cuzzi was asked about the strike three to Zobrist and he didn’t back down.

As a matter of fact, Cuzzi double down and said not only was it the right call, but according to however umpires are graded, that was an acceptable strike as well.

Via the Chicago Tribune.

Cuzzi looked again at the video and stood by the called strike against Zobrist, which the Statcast box TV viewers see showed was outside the zone.

“The box that (players) see is not the box we’re graded on,” Cuzzi said. “And it happens often. They go back and look at the box, and the box is not the same box we get graded on.

“It was graded an acceptable pitch. We get graded every day. And they may not care and may not believe that, but that’s the reality.”

One, how the fuck does Cuzzi go back, look at the video and still determine this was a goddamn strike? (#6 was called strike 3 on Zobrist)

Two, what kind of strike zone box is MLB using to grade umpires in which that pitch is considered a strike?

Third, if MLB is going to use some asinine strike zone box to grade umpires on balls and strikes, how about making that special box available for every fan to see because the shit we see every at-bat certainly doesn’t fit with whatever dumbass grading system is being used right now.

Also, it’s not just Cuzzi, or Hernandez, or Joe West, CB Bucknor, Bill Miller, whoever it is, every umpire gets too many balls and strikes calls wrong.

2-0 count, wonder what the fucking special umpire strike zone box grades these at pic.twitter.com/gkO7Le8lio

— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) August 15, 2018

This is on MLB to fix, but keep worrying about useless shit rather than improving the game.