Baseball is going to miss Phil Cuzzi.
Changing routine is difficult. When your profession requires you to live continuously out of a suitcase for seven months or longer each year, and be observed by tens of thousands of fanatic sports fans in many of the most modern stadiums, this unique experience could be difficult to shut off.
But, after 27 years umpiring regular season ball games, and all of MLB’s “Jewel Events” such as the World Series, All-Star Games, league championship series, and divisional playoff games, not to mention 162-game regular season schedules, Cuzzi has decided to hang up his mask and chest protector for good.
The New Jersey native has decided to retire.
Just prior to the start of spring training games in late February, an announcement by MLB made Cuzzi’s exit from the game official.
Reaching the level of crew chief in umpiring, Cuzzi began his MLB affiliation in 1991, stationed at first base in an 11-inning game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. For three seasons, Cuzzi shuttled between working regularly at baseball’s Triple-A level, and as a “call up” umpire when needed to fill in within the MLB ranks. With no full-time umpire openings in either the National or American Leagues after the 1993 season, Cuzzi was cut loose.
For the next several years, Cuzzi contemplated a return to the game. A chance meeting with then National League President Len Coleman at a New Jersey hotel that he had been working at would eventually put Cuzzi on a path that would return him to the major leagues.
“My sister told me that Len Coleman checked into the hotel. I had been carrying around a letter that I wanted to send him, but wanted to make sure he would actually receive it, and not have it go to someone in his office. I came up with a plan to hand deliver the letter,” Cuzzi told The Epoch Times.
“I went to his room and knocked on the door. He told me to come back in 20 minutes. When I returned, he was asleep. So, I slid the letter under his door. The next morning we met. Mr. Coleman said he would get back to me at the end of the season, and he did.”
Coleman laid out a plan that required Cuzzi to spend a season in Single-A ball, followed by a season in Double-A, and concluding with a third season in the minors at the Triple-A level, before returning in 1999 to the MLB level. In 2000, Cuzzi was promoted to full time as an MLB umpire, where he remained through the 2025 season.
Making the decision to bring his career to an end wasn’t emotionally easy for Cuzzi, who during his umpiring days worked multiple no-hitters, and in one game in 2000 ejected seven members of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
“I went back and forth for quite awhile, when thinking about retirement,” Cuzzi said. “There was a side of me that said physically I feel fine, even though last season I did become the oldest active umpire. I weighed the pluses and minuses, and it was really the day after Christmas that I decided that I was going to retire. I put together a simple email to send to the MLB office. When I hit send, it felt like a weight was lifted off of me.”
One of Cuzzi’s more memorable games as an umpire occurred during the 2023 season and was between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers. On the mound for the Mets at Dodger Stadium was Max Scherzer. Cuzzi, the crew chief, ejected Scherzer during the game’s fourth inning for having a foreign, sticky substance in his glove.
In the game’s second inning, during a routine check of Scherzer’s glove, Cuzzi found a sticky substance and instructed the pitcher to wash his hands. In the following inning, Cuzzi found Scherzer’s glove to still contain a foreign substance and ordered him to change his glove. Cuzzi checked again in the fourth inning, and ejected the future Hall of Fame pitcher after yet again finding a substance other than rosin.
Cuzzi tells of how he will miss the relationships he’s made over decades of jetting to and from MLB cities, and becoming friendly with hotel, stadium, restaurant, and car rental agency employees. He will also miss the camaraderie of his fellow umpires.
“Before the game, after the game, the time we [umpires] spent together was special. As much as the travel is difficult at times, and successful at times, too, I will miss seeing the cities that I’ve gotten to know. Most of all, I'll miss stepping onto the field.”
With no desire to be working in MLB’s front office as an umpire supervisor, working on his golf game and spending more time with his wife Gilda and family is instead on Cuzzi’s agenda for the foreseeable future.
With his No. 10 umpire game jersey now mothballed, like millions of other MLB fans, Cuzzi will follow the game on TV and watch calls made by the umpires closely.
