Re: Was that the real umpire, or was that Steve Bartman in disguise?

'Twas Thu, 13 Oct 2005 07:43:56 GMT when all
alt.sports.baseball.calif-angels stood in awe as Randall Bart
<Barticus@att.spam.net> uttered:

>3) When the ump is clueless, by convention (though the rule does not
>require it) the ump says nothing.
>
>4) Eddings said nothing.

On further review I think it comes down to this. Eddings is guilty of a
bad "mechanic", and after denying it that night, he admitted it the next
day. This bad mechanic confused Scioscia, the Angel fielders, and several
million fans, but Paul and Pierzynski aren't looking at the ump's hands.
They go by what the ump says. If the ump says nothing, he did not see the
play. Paul knew his glove hit the ground, and he should have noticed the
ump didn't yell "out". Paul's job at that point is to tag the batter or
throw to first. Paul demonstrated why he's a third string catcher.

Instant replay might have given the Angels the out. In 1985, instant
replay might have given the Cardinals the out. In both cases the ump
didn't see the out and therefore _correctly_ didn't call the out. We say
it as "tie goes to the runner" but the rule is that is the ump is unsure
whether there is an out there is no out. If Pierzynski hadn't run to
first, Eddings would likely have vigorously called "out" when Pierzynski
got to the bench. I've seen it before -- the ump suddenly calls out or
safe and people realize someone missed a tag. It's the kookie way
baseball works.

Baseball needs to standardize the umps mechanics, as football did in
ancient times and basketball did a few years ago. Baseball should also
talk about instant replay, but that may not help. After the game, the
umps said they had seen the tape and it was inconclusive, which implies
that nothing would have changed. Of course Eddings also said his
mechanics were consistent. Eddings was in denial that night.

In any case we are talking about one play in a nine inning game. If the
Angels were hitting better, that play wouldn't have mattered so much. If
Paul didn't proceed to give the pinch runner scoring position, a hit
wouldn't have scored him. But like the Cards of 20 years ago and the
Cubbies two years ago, sometimes an event like this rattles the players to
the point that they stop playing baseball.

Here's Ryne Sandberg's article. The title gives you his opinion: E-2.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=rs-angels101305

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