A Twister play

You know that whenever you see an umpire at a postgame news conference, something went haywire during the game. Such was the case last night in Chicago, where home plate umpire Doug Eddings had to face the music for his botching of a third strike call. In recent years, especially since the umpires have been gathered under one umbrella and the reviews and QuesTec have been used, umpire mechanics and signals have been largely standardized. Of course, everyone has their own called strike signals, and a good "ring 'em up" called third strike always brings pizzazz. But for fair/foul, home run/in play, and especially some specific strike calls, virtually every ump has the same signals. On a checked swing for strike one or two, the home plate ump will point at the batter and then signal strike. When a batter checks his swing on strike three and it's caught cleanly, the ump points at the batter and then punches him out. On a dropped third strike, the ump will hold his arm out sideways to the right and then follow the play to first or when the tag is made by the catcher, punch the batter out. Watch any major league game and you'll find that to hold true.

All this further muddles things as they happened last night, and confounds Eddings' postgame explanations. On the third strike, Eddings held his arm out to the right to indicate a swing, then punched the batter out to indicate that the ball wasn't dropped and that Pierzynski was out. That's why not only catcher Josh Paul, but the rest of the Angels started to leave the field, since all the infielders had to go on was the signal. Pierzynski was completely within his rights to run to first, but according to the ump, he was out at the plate anyway. During that time, Eddings admitted he was watching Paul to gauge his reaction. This happens on many close plays -- the ump gets his cue from the player. If a fielder makes a swipe tag, then goes back for another tag, it's a cue to the ump that the fielder thinks he missed the first tag, so the ump will generally agree and call the runner safe. So if Eddings was unsure of the call, and was watching Paul, who rolled the ball back to the mound, why would he use that reaction as grounds for a no-catch call? The bottom line is if Eddings hadn't punched Pierzynski out, we could assume he either saw the pitch hit the dirt or wasn't sure and was erring on the side of caution. But once he punched him out, the play was dead and the inning was over. Chalk this one up to bad umpiring and the cardinal sin of officiating any sport -- wavering on your call.