HR and JK immediately jumped on this point and began praising Pierzynski profusely and implicitly approving what Eddings did -- specifically, they criticized Angels catcher Josh Paul for not "finishing the play" by tagging Pierzynski or throwing to first.
There are several problems with this conclusion, which again, they reached nanoseconds after Pierzynski finished talking to Pedro Gomez. First, we have only Pierzynski's word that no audible out call was made. Later, I believe Eddings himself would claim he made no verbal call, but at the time HR and JK didn't have that information. Second, Eddings made what looked to everybody in the world, including the players in the field, like an out signal with a clenched fist. You can see Darin Erstad imitating what Eddings did in the replay. That's why people were running off the field -- because it really looked like Doug Eddings had called the third out. Third, if you're Josh Paul, and you know you catch the ball, and you know Pierzynski swung at the pitch, don't you believe the inning is over? Heck, if you turn around, you'd see the umpire making what looks an awful lot like an out call. Sure, you could make an insurance tag after every third strike ever, but Paul probably didn't even think the catch was borderline. Paul also later said that umpires typically make a "No Catch" verbal call if the ball isn't caught.
Right now, the call seems like a travesty. And it's the opposite of surprising that HR and JK are right there, getting it almost completely wrong, or at the very least, painting an incomplete picture of what happened.
Labels: a.j. pierzynski, doug eddings, harold reynolds, john kruk
