Whether the ball was trapped against the ground, bounced a tiny bit off the ground, or never touched the ground--that's beside the point, really. It was close enough that an ump in real time could very well judge it to have made contact with the ground. It's a judgment call, and that's that.
But what matters is the actions--and non-actions--of the ump. How many hand signals did he make? How did he make them? What do they mean? How did they in this instance compare with how he ordinarily makes hand signals? Those are the key questions and what we should be seeing on replays.
And perhaps most important of all is what the ump did not do: HE NEVER VERBALLY, VOCALLY, CALLED THE MAN OUT. Play continues.
Now should the ump have said, and does he normally say, "No catch," when the ball touches the ground? I don't know.
And if--IF--his hand signals created a confusing "cognitive dissonance," then he's at least partially at fault. But I'm not sure they did. Tell me if this is correct: He made two hand/arm gestures. First, an outstretched arm, meaning no bat contact. Second, a clenched fist, meaning strike. Is that correct, or were there more than those two gestures? (I don't have cable, so I can't watch ESPN for a thousand replays.)
Remember, the hand signal for out is not just a clenched fist (which means strike), but a clenched fist accompanied by a short hammered motion, a pumping action. Was that there or not?
Finally, catcher Paul himself has admitted that he never heard the ump SAY, "Out." The catcher never saw the ump's hand signals anyway; he's facing out toward the field. And he rolled the ball away before the clenched fist, too. He should have waited for a verbalized out call.
Things happen- I am a a fan of beloved Southsiders, we caught a break. all I know is if the call was reveresed, that whole stadium would have been up for grabs..
I wanted Eddings to tell us what his motion was for a clean catch strikeout if that wasn't it. I bet he'd freeze up trying to think of one.
I noted a game this year when Eddings threw out the arm for third strike and no contact-- JUST LIKE LAST NIGHT. BUT, he didn't pump the out. Because the play wasn't dead in that game. So, we're all supposed to believe that he changed his style in just a few months after years of using these arm movements? Total Barbra Streisand.
AJP left the batter's box and was heading for the dugout. There wasn't even a real chance of Paul tagging him out. What AJP did was no different than what A-Rod did in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS with his slap. He tried to put one over on the umps, too. Eddings choked when AJP ran to first and tried to pretend he didn't call the play dead with the out call.
You don't have to "VERBALLY, VOCALLY, [CALL] THE MAN OUT," if you call him out with your established out arm movement.
That first arm movement he made is consistent with his "swing strike, no contact" movement. The second fist pump is his established out call. He didn't just clench his fist. He rung him up. The play was dead. Eddings called the out and changed his mind after AJP ran to 1B. He screwed up and got conned by AJP.
It's like the Police Code, I guess, where no cop ever goes against another cop. A travesty. The Angels should replay all of that when Eddings umps in Game 3.