Eddings' Obstruction Call
 

Did anybody see the obstruction call in the White Sox/Rays game on TBS today? It looked for certain that A J Piersynski caused the contact, however slight, by throwing his left arm into Willy Aybar. If someone could post a link, it would be most helpful.

What is it with Eddings and his love affair with the White Sox?.............:D

That's the third call he's made that's had controvery in the last three years that have heavily benefited the Sox.

1. Uncaught third strike.
2. Called umpire interference on himself when he collided with Jermaine Dye running the bases.
3. Obstruction call on Rays

A.J. gave an Academy Award-worthy acting job. I was surprised when the obstruction was called.

Actually it was interference-mlb.com
 

Interference call tough to swallow

I could not even bring myself to read the quote from Ozzie...heart attcks run in my family.

Joe In Missouri

Yep, it was interference alllllright. Your MLB.com reporter Mike Yam says so.

Watch the RECAP You can skip ahead to about 1.50

Joe In Missouri

It doesn't look like obstruction (or interference, for that matter) at all. A.J. seemed to have slipped the same time Aybar passed him. If there was any contact, it was AJ's elbow hitting Aybar.

I wouldn't have called it myself.

As was I. I was at the game, seated in section 340, which was directly above and in line w/ the rundown. As soon as I saw AJ stick his left arm out to contact the fielder, I turned to my dad and said, "AJ's trying to get an obstruction call!" Sure enough, Eddings calls it. What made me think Eddings blew the call was that he never called "time" and made the award. He kind of looked unsure of himself, or maybe even like he got deked by AJ, which, of course, would NEVER happen, right? ;) Considering it's "Type A" obstruction, the ball should have been killed right away and the award made. Instead, Eddings only pointed to AJ when it occurred.

The controversy is all the rage around town now, and yesterday evening, I was on WSCR-AM The Score explaining obstruction and the context of the play.

Whats interesting to me, after watching the play, is there are several Rays all over Eddings, and it took what seemed quite a while for reinforcements to arrive,,leaving him to fend for himself.

Exactly what you're taught, when in a rundown you want to try and run into or make contact with the fielder who has just thrown the ball and is in your way.

Good job of baseball by the runner. Umpire had to make the call based on obstruction. The replay I saw on ESPN didn't show everything, but the fielder was in his way so obstruction.

The manager said he did it intentionally, "DUH" that's what he's supposed to do.

Thansk
David

Yes -- good job to try to get the obstruction call. Still, a bad call based on the replays I saw. It appears to me that Pierzinski (sp?) fell down because there wasn't any contact -- much like falling when someone pulls the chair out from under you.

I can see how U2 might miss it (being "actively" involved in the run-down), but I would think U3 would have a good view of the play / actions of Pierzinski and the Rays' fielder and given some input (and maybe he did, but the input wasn't accepted).

Any reason Ted Barrett, the #2 on the crew, commented to the media instead of DeMuth the crew chief?

Because Dana gave him the OK to do so. Ted's considered a bit more explanatory and a tad better speaker than Dana. ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't U2 watch the runner through a run-down? After all, the object at that point is for defense to tag him.

If so, you would think U2 would have seen the whole play and ruled it correctly.

I still think that he saw contact, he made the ruling. Once he called it, no one objected so it was too late to go back and change it. Probably on second thought, he would have called it differently.

But then, most of us have been there before also.

Thanks
David

No one objected? Where were you when the Tampa fielder and their manager were screaming at Eddings? Believe me, there was plenty of objecting.

pride swallowed
 

Bad angle...bad call...

Anyways, if this was soccer, we would call that a flop...

That's a bs move on piersflopper

That's not objecting, that's just coaches doing their job. We ignore coaches, we eject players.;) I was talking about from his other umpires.

Thanks
David

Well, you might want to change your tune. Both Eddings and MLB admitted the call was incorrect:

Not really, I didn't say the call was correct, but just that in real time I can see how he made the call.

IMO he should have asked his partner if he saw anything differently, and he might have, but they didn't offer any help so he had to go with what he saw.

Still, that was a great piece of baserunning, and he "flopped" as Bob said and got the call.

Hey, happens in the NBA all the time.

In retrospect, there are many calls that could be changed if we could do them over again.

But, I am glad to hear that MLB admitted the call was wrong, that helps us umpires to know how to handle that type of call if it happens again.

Do you have a link to the story from MLB perspective I would like to read the reason for his change of heart, since this play does happen quite a bit.

Was it because the BR intentionally stuck his arm out or what?

Just curious.

Thanks
David

FYI, Eddings did go to his partners for help to see what they saw on the play. The crew huddled for about a minute or so and let the call stand.