Another decent Vecsey article on THE CALL

[Mercy!]

I suspect the players on both teams have put this behind them, and are plenty tired of all the post mortems. But if the Sox go all the way, this will forever be part of the story that's told.

 

http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/sport...csey.html?8hpib

 

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October 14, 2005

Sports of The Times

 

Don't Rush to Instant Replay: Maybe the Umpire Was Only Half Wrong

 

By GEORGE VECSEY

 

IT'S nice to have the luxury of time. If I had been typing away on deadline in the press box in Chicago on Wednesday night, I am quite sure I would have vilified the home plate umpire, Doug Eddings.

 

I'm also sure I would have fulminated for baseball to adopt instant replay: one challenge a game, just for a call like this.

 

Human error lives. I still think Eddings was dead wrong when he ruled that the ball tipped the dirt after A. J. Pierzynski of the White Sox had swung and missed for a third strike with two outs in the ninth inning.

 

But after talking yesterday to one of Major League Baseball's best people, Steve Palermo, a supervisor of umpires, I have come to think that Eddings was not totally wrong when he punched the air with his right hand, signaling a third strike.

 

Eddings, who is 37, told a few reporters yesterday, "I should have sold it either way," suggesting he might drop the right-fist motion for every strike, but Palermo, once a highly respected major-league umpire, backed him. "The kid did exactly what he was supposed to do," Palermo said yesterday, speaking of Eddings. "He brings his right arm up and he doesn't say anything. It's not his job to say, 'Oh, fellows, the ball is in play.' You are not supposed to coach. You are supposed to umpire."

 

Pierzynski, an everyday catcher and something of an agitator, remembered this lesson from a mistake he made on defense last season. But Josh Paul, a reserve who played only 34 games for the Angels this season, was not game-sharp about the persistent practices of everyday catchers like Pierzynski.

 

"Catchers are taught that on anything close to the ground they are supposed to tag the batter," Palermo said.

 

Pierzynski opportunistically made Paul and Eddings look bad by feinting toward the dugout and, when Paul rolled the ball to the mound, doing a 180 and dashing to first base. Three pitches later, the Sox scored for a 2-1 victory that left the Angels furious.

 

Umpires who mess up in October are remembered for decades. Don Denkinger blew a call at first base, costing the Cardinals the sixth game of the 1985 World Series. Rich Garcia didn't see a 12-year-old turn Derek Jeter's descending fly into a crucial home run in the 1996 A.L.C.S. And Joe West was unnecessarily officious in calling the Yankees' Robinson Cano out for swerving slightly out of the base line to avoid running over the Angels' first baseman during the division series this year.

 

Even before the White Sox scored the winning run Wednesday night, we were all adding Doug Eddings to that list. Fox showed all the different angles of the third strike, and not once did I detect the ball hitting the dirt. Palermo said he saw one angle that indicated the ball had changed direction.

 

"Inconclusive," Palermo said, using a term football officials use after instant replay when they cannot see conclusive proof that they were wrong. Palermo said he takes in the occasional Chiefs game in the owner's suite in Kansas City.

 

"Stevie, was he right or wrong?" his friends ask during those tedious instant-replay huddles. Even though he roots for the Chiefs, Palermo usually finds himself agreeing with the original call on the field.

 

"Inconclusive," Palermo often decides. "Then I tell them why they called it that way."

 

Although hockey, basketball, college football, soccer and tennis are all going at least slightly electronic - and baseball monitors the strike zone with technology - Palermo does not want instant replay in his sport. Bud Selig, the commissioner who calls himself a traditionalist, is on record as not wanting instant replay. Most players and managers accept the occasional error in judgment by an umpire because they respect the high percentage of accuracy.

 

All over America, Doug Eddings is getting grief for displaying a mild form of the punch-out signal used to signal a strikeout. Palermo said, however, if first base is open, or there are two outs, the umpire still signals a strikeout but is not supposed to indicate whether the batter is out or alive. "If the catcher tagged the batter, the umpire would have said, 'Now you're out,' and done a double pump," Palermo said.

 

"If the ball gets loose from the catcher, we don't point to where it is," Palermo said. And if a runner leaves third base too soon on a fly ball, the umpires silently observe and wait to see if the fielders appeal the call.

 

The Angels' manager, Mike Scioscia, staged a protest that was infinitely more polite than anything Billy Martin or Lou Piniella would have done. Scioscia could be questioned for using a rusty catcher after opting for a pinch-runner one inning earlier. But Eddings's call on the third strike was the worst decision of the night.

 

Still, upon further review - as they say in football - I don't want a crew of umps hovering over a monitor while players and fans fidget. Human error lives. It certainly lived Wednesday night.

 

E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[Lefty Of Love]

Nobody has mentioned that even though LA has 3 catchers, that it was a questionable move to start both Molina brothers, one as the DH, because it does leave your catching situation thin...there is a reason Paul was a 3rd string catcher and only played in 30 something games...maybe Scioscia shoulda made sure he had a good player behind the plate.

[Reddy]

Nobody has mentioned that even though LA has 3 catchers, that it was a questionable move to start both Molina brothers, one as the DH, because it does leave your catching situation thin...there is a reason Paul was a 3rd string catcher and only played in 30 something games...maybe Scioscia shoulda made sure he had a good player behind the plate.

 

he didnt want to overuse benji at catcher because of his arm - he still wasnt 100% after getting hit against NY

[Balta1701]

B. Molina also took a shot off of his leg/foot late in game 1. Scoscia said he wanted to give B. Molina a chance to rest his legs, but he couldn't do without one of his hottest bats.

[Reddy]

B. Molina also took a shot off of his leg/foot late in game 1.  Scoscia said he wanted to give B. Molina a chance to rest his legs, but he couldn't do without one of his hottest bats.

 

he took that hit off his foot in game 2, buehrle hit him

[Wanne]

Pierzynski opportunistically made Paul and Eddings look bad by feinting toward the dugout and, when Paul rolled the ball to the mound, doing a 180 and dashing to first base. Three pitches later, the Sox scored for a 2-1 victory that left the Angels furious.

 

It's s*** like this that gets me pissed. Look bad....cause he had the instict delayed by a couple of seconds...and was smart enough to go?!?

[YASNY]

Nobody has mentioned that even though LA has 3 catchers, that it was a questionable move to start both Molina brothers, one as the DH, because it does leave your catching situation thin...there is a reason Paul was a 3rd string catcher and only played in 30 something games...maybe Scioscia shoulda made sure he had a good player behind the plate.

 

I think they keep players on the bench so the manager can use them when he needs them. That's what he did. Nothing questionable about it.

[southsider2k5]

Nobody has mentioned that even though LA has 3 catchers, that it was a questionable move to start both Molina brothers, one as the DH, because it does leave your catching situation thin...there is a reason Paul was a 3rd string catcher and only played in 30 something games...maybe Scioscia shoulda made sure he had a good player behind the plate.

 

http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41364