The Eddings Error

Can you believe this? First of all, I do want to commend Mike Scioscia and the Angel organization for valiently handling this bad call. Mike said in the press conference that his team should not allow one call to be the deciding factor of the game. Escobar did leave a pitch hanging out there for Crede. And the yes the Angels should not have allowed second base to be stollen. As a die hard Angel fan, I am not upset over the loss. The White Sox played one heck of a game. Buehrle pitched an incredbile 9 innings. Like Mike said, it took 4 Angel pitchers to match what Burehrle did. Congrats, Chicago, on the win. I can't point the finger and blame Pierzynski either. It was a good heads up play for him. I'm sure he was thinking, "What the heck. I may as well run to first. What's the worst that can happen. I'm out anyways. I was on the bad side of a similar situation last year, may as well give it a try to see what happens to me now."

My gripe is against this terrible officiating crew. Why didn't the rest of the umps get together to talk to Eddings and get somemore information on the call? The should have said, "Doug, looks to me like you rang him out. Just make the appology to Scioscia on the bad call, and we'll start clean in the 10th inning."

Don't give me your blah blah blah against Josh Paul. The guy has been playing baseball for years. For a catcher, it's instinct to tag the runner if it's strike 3 and the ball was dropped or picked off the dirt. I've seen it. It's second nature. It's instinct. Josh Paul tossed the ball back to the mound because Doug Eddings rung his closed fist to call Pierzynski out. End of story. Only 2 out of 3 million people will agree that a closed fist does not mean "You're out!" Sure a verbal cue, any verbal cue, would have been helpful. But umps do that out of courtesy. It's the sign that we all go by. If Eddings had said, "YOU'RE OUT!", then obviously inning's over. Or if Eddings said, "NO CATCH!", the Paul would have known to tag the runner or throw to Erstad at first. He didn't say anything. He admitted in the press conference to the fact that he didn't say anything. Eddings made a call and then two seconds later, changed his mind as Pierzynski confused him with his jog towards first. Pierzynski took two steps across the plate to get back to the dug out. That should be enough to end the inning. But as soon as decided to turn around and make this attempt to keep the inning alive, Eddings realized that that ball may have not been caught in flight. Being behind the catcher and not having a clear line of sight to the catch, one has to wonder how in the world could Eddings have seen and been absolutely sure that the ball was indeed not caught.

Well, TheRantSheet.com cameras were there to capture Eddings in his locker room practicing a few of his game calling "mechanics." [Image may be unsuitible to overly sensitive, easily offended, mildly squemish viewers.]