Exactly, notice how the angels fans here fail to acknowledge their own mistakes preferring to call out and blame others for the angel's own ineptness after this call.
1) catcher fails to get ball out of glove on stolen base attempt.
2) pitcher makes HUGE mistake throwing a meatball down the middle with an 0-2 count with two outs and a guy on second.
Winners take responsibility, losers make excuses.
Even the Angels manager has more integrity than some here. Especially those who think they know the rules and don't have a clue.
I have no doubt that Scioscia will have them ready to play Friday night. He's a pro. Ca-ca happens, you've got to pick yourself up and go on. Isn't that the conservative position? :)
Ok Folks, those of you CLAIMING the ball did not bounce need to do the following WITH INTEGRITY, and tell me what you see.
Go to MLB.com, and do the following.
1)Click Here: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/ps/y2005/video.jsp?view=ana_cws
2) Click on the 350k feed of the play in question.
3) after the ad, right click on the play and choose zoom, full screen.
4) watch play, and when you get to 34 seconds in, actually 35, use your mouse, hover over the seek key and keep clicking and replaying seconds 34-35. When you get it right you will see the ball BOUNCING up about 1/4 inch into the glove. Best if clcked on second 35 about 10 times, you will see the movement.
5) Notice this is separate from the mitt movement of the catcher.
6) Concentrate on second 35 of this clip, and you will see the bounce.
Maybe someone with capture can zoom the 2 frames showing a line on both superimposed with resulting ball being above after it hits the ground.
folks, I am convinced 100% that this ball hit the ground and bounced up into his glove.
Is it subtle, yes, but it is there. If this had been reversed, and he was called out, there would be more evidence that this ball hit the ground than not.
All you have to do is follow my advice above, and let's see who has the integrity here, and who does not.
We're Freepers, let's get this one right, shall we?
Regards,
Joe
Scioscia isn't being a gentleman, he's being a good manager: he isn't going to embarass the officials even more than they already should by piling on.
Obviously, the crucial thing no one here has (I assume) is audio or transcript of what was or was not said. We can look at the hand signals 'til the cows come home, but they might be moot if the ump said anything that either reinforced Paul's belief the inning was over or clued AJ in that it might not be. Or, if anything he said contradicted what he did physically with the arm and hand gestures.
But, if speculation is the rule of the day:
IMO, and it's only that, I think AJ accepted the out and began to walk when it suddenly occurred to him that a) it was a low pitch and close to being in the dirt, and that b) Paul never tagged him. When he realized that, I think he turns around and realizes the opportunity. If he's going on any act or word of the ump's, it must have contradicted something else the ump said or did.
I say this because, in my thinking, Paul is a veteran enough guy (don't know him at all as a fan, but he's been arond and the Fox crew mentioned he's writing a book on calling pitches) that he wouldn't have missed a simple thing like tagging on a dropped 3rd strike or ball in the dirt if he had had any reason to believe the play hadn't ended. Yes, a "brain fart" is possible and he simply didn't do it, but he seemed to be doing it pretty routinely all night, so I would think that if he at all thought this was a situation warranting a tag, he would've done it.
Perhaps he should've done it anyway, "just to be safe", but at that point I think you're almost arguing that a catcher in the majors should just be tagging every single strikeout victim regardless, no matter where the ball's located, "just to be sure."
Maybe you do that for Little Leagues, but I'd think that at the MLB level the officiating should be quality enough that catchers (and batters) shouldn't have to deal with a play like this, where it appears neither player knew exactly what was happening (however AJ figured out there was a chance to run, his postgame comments sounded to me like he acted on some sort of gut instinct, fuelled by a previous incident where he'd been the victim, rather than from any direct indication from Eddings that the play was still on).
Also, I believe Paul (or whomever it was) who stated that it is custom for the officials to indicate (for both the catcher's and batter's sake) if there was no catch on the third strike.
And finally, to me Eddings' postconf comments struck me as weasel-like. When the one reporter brought up the fact that Paul could have avoided all this by simply making the tag, you could almost see Eddings' eyes light up like "yes, oh g*d yes, that's it that's it, that's my story, not my fault, don't blame me!"
My completely speculative guess is that the ump made a half-(censored) call - whether he meant to call it a third strike and out, or a dropped third strike, he either was incomplete or what he motioned and what he said were contradictory, and in the confusion AJ was simply able to capitalize on it, and then the ump did what he thought would cover it up and not look like the idiot he might have actually been at that crucial moment.
As I said, all pure speculation. I guess I have no "dog" or "horse" in the race persay, as my teams are the Pirates and Red Sox, but I am rooting for the Angels' Darin Erstad (as he's a former Husker) and Orlando Cabrera (former Red Sox who Theo shouldn't have dropped in favor of Renteria).