What Is A Strike Zone?

Disappointing loss, yes. But even more what a disappointing match-up thanks to a dartboard-in-a-bar strike zone called by HP Umpire Derryl Cousins. He had a chance to call a phenomenal game by two of the game's most phenomenal pitchers. Did he fucking choke? What was the deal? San Francisco did not win tonight, and Philadelphia did not lose. Derryl Cousins was a nuisance for all 27 players who played tonight, and I think I found out why.

First, let's look at the life of Mr. Cousins. He proudly umpired his 4,000th game in 2009 and umpired 3 All-Star Games, 5 LDS, 6 LCS, and 3 World Series . He started umpiring in 1980 after playing from 1966-1972. Who cares? I got pretty bored reading about his life, but let's remember those last parts and examine the rules of The Strike Zone.

1969 - "The Strike Zone is that space over home plate which is between the batter's armpits and the top of his knees when he assumes a natural stance. The umpire shall determine the Strike Zone according to the batter's usual stance when he swings at a pitch."

1996 - The Strike Zone is expanded on the lower end, moving from the top of the knees to the bottom of the knees.

Let's look at the AB probably burned into our memories right now. The Bat vs. Doc in the 6th inning.



That looks like it's about 3 inches into the strikezone, and that just so happens to roughly be the size of my kneecap! I hope he's not calling this game like the way he played it 40 years ago, so let's check out all of his called pitches. Green is a ball, red is a strike. This is also from his point of view.




If you just look at his called pitches for RHH it looks pretty damned acceptable. But one glance at the plot for LHH and it's absurd how inconsistent his strikezone ended up being. Really, at this point I gave up trying to find an explanation and came to my own conclusion. On the way to the mound Brian Wilson's beard made Derryl Cousins slip through a vortex and time travel from the 80's and finally utilize the current rules of the Strike Zone.

That's my conclusion. The slightly more educated, but a lot less drunk explanation is the simple fact he can not call strikes or balls consistently against LHH, and that's that. Is this a case for implementing an instant replay review of strikes and balls? No. This is a case of pure and bad HP umpiring. For me these graphs are pretty conclusive. He's inconsistent on calls at the knees, and downright terrible recognizing location when a LHH is in the box.

This is not only devastating to me as a Phillies fan, but even more as a baseball fan. Let's all stick with the cardinal rule saying if you're gathering attention and supposed to be in the background, you're probably doing something wrong.