Home plate umpire Doug Eddings, a graduate of Mayfield High School, called a third strike but not a third out in the bottom of the ninth inning in last night's American League Championship Series, setting up a game-winning hit by White Sox third baseman Joe Crede.
AP writer Mike Fitzpatrick said the White Sox's 11th hour 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim was sure to be one of the most disputed victories in playoff history. See the AP story here.
With two out in the ninth and the score tied at 1-1, White Sox batter A.J. Pierzynski swung and missed on a pitch by Angels reliever Kelvim Escobar. Angels backup catcher Josh Paul may or may not have dropped the ball -- video replays appeared to show Paul caught the ball cleanly before it hit the dirt. But in the confusion after Eddings called the third strike but not the third out, Paul thought the inning was over, rolled the ball out to the mound while Pierzynski hightailed it to first, setting up the game-winning hit by Crede that sent a pinch runner home from second.
In a rare meeting with the media after the game, Eddings watched several replays and said he was satisfied he'd made the right call, the AP reported.
"I had questions. I didn't have him catching the ball," Eddings told reporters.
Knotted at one game apiece, the best-of-seven ALCS now moves back to Anaheim for game three on Friday.
Eddings, 37, has been a major league umpire since 1999 and was one of the 36 of 68 major league umpires picked to work postseason games, according to a profile of Eddings that appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News this week.
Eddings, who started umpiring youth games when he was 14,  previously worked two division series -- the Oakland As-N.Y. Yankees series in 2000 and the L.A. Angels-Yankees series in 2002, the Sun-News reported. He worked the All Star Game in Houston last season and was the first-base umpire in game one of the Angels-White Sox series on Tuesday, the Sun-News said.
Eddings' parents and 96-year-old grandmother live in Las Cruces, the paper reported.

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