Fotis Bazakos

Total aside, but for a while in the Rapids forum one of the posters was doing anagrams of the ref's names assigned to Rapids games. Fotis had the best one, Bazooka Fists! (Which is what I still call him when I see him assigned to a game )

 

I don't know about his time on the FIFA list, but my experience last summer meeting him was great.

I was at the Midwest Regional youth tournament as a mentor. I was assigned to a boys U17 semi-final match. Fotis was at the tournament as well, working with the referee staff. Turns out, he was watching the same match that day.

Afterward, we get ready for our debrief. Fotis comes up to me and asks if he can join our debrief session. What am I going to do, say no? Of course he can join us. I start the debrief with some points I have for the referee about positioning. As I am going through my information, Fotis is sitting there looking at his notes and nodding in agreement. After a few minutes, he takes over with some additional points.

After we were finished, I thanked him for his input. He was very complimentary of me and the information I had for the referee crew. I left that session feeling so good about myself, knowing that I had recognized some of the same things that he was going to address. Fotis could have just taken charge of the whole session, but he allowed me to do my job, and only interjected when necessary. I learned a lot from his input.

 

There's a bad joke in there somewhere about a brain surgeon not being smart enough to ref....

 

He was perplexed with how the players seemed to still operate without the use of their brains?

 

My AYSO region is near JPL. We have a number of rocket scientists as referees . . .

 

I've worked with a few NASA engineers...

 

My younger daughter worked at Lockheed Martin Space Systems for 10+ years. When something was hard to do, they'd say, "This IS rocket science!"

One project she worked on was updating the guidance technology for submarine launched ballistic missiles. The original/previous technology was accurate enough to hit a targeted house, most of the time. The engineers told them "We've got it where we can hit the front door, but, if you give us another six months, we can put it through the door without touching the door frame." "Ah, there's a nuclear bomb on the front of that missile. I think hitting the door will be close enough."

 

Funny, because many fans gripe about officiating not being brain surgery (which we all know it isn’t, but still.......).

If my day job was being a neurosurgeon, I think I’d choose my day job as well. Heck, I don’t do college because my day job as a finance director is really busy during the month of September.

 

I met my wife in college and we both got Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering degrees (pretty much textbook rocket science). After graduation her parents took us to Disney World (we were already engaged by then) and while there we took one of their backstage tours which included a session with an artist teaching us how to draw Goofy. At one point he said something along the lines of "Don't worry, its not too hard, this isn't rocket science", at which point I leaned over to my (now) wife and said "Good, because we just finished that". The artist caught what I was saying and asked what I meant so we told him. He pretty much lost it and said he couldn't wait to tell the rest of the gang backstage because he always uses that joke and that was the fist time he'd ever gotten a response from actual rocket scientists.

 

Now I hope this thread segues into Goofy jokes.

 

Well, there once was a neurosurgeon, a cardiologist, and an orthopedic surgeon on an elevator....

just to be clear, dr. bazakos is a neurologist, not a neurosurgeon. Of course still quite accomplished but not as rarified as neurosurgery, which is kinda like top gun for doctors.

 

It was indeed Elias Bazakos who was on the FIFA panel for one year: 2012.

Fotis, his brother, started getting his first whistles around the same time and is still active with PRO as of last season.

 

I had a college professor who would say, "This ain't rocket science."

One day he paused and wondered out loud if anyone really knew if rocket science was hard, and if what we were doing in physics was or wasn't harder.

(Of course, much of rocket science IS physics.)

 

@tomek75, listen, if the customer doesn't know what they want then who is to say what they will get

 

It reminds me of my ex-wife. Whenever we went shopping I asked "What is it that you want?" and she replied "I'll know it when I see it."