He Has Insider’s View, Any Way You Look at It

The ninth-inning call by home plate umpire Doug Eddings that helped the Chicago White Sox defeat the Angels on Wednesday night has been the talk of the sports world.

A few people have said the ball short-hopped into Angel catcher Josh Paul’s glove, and that Eddings made the right call. More people have said it was a bad call.

It seems everybody who saw it in person or on television has an opinion.

Tim McCarver’s should count more than most. For one thing, he is a former catcher. For another, as Fox’s lead baseball commentator, he was working the game and was able to study the replays.

After arriving in Orange County on Thursday, in preparation for tonight’s Game 3 between the White Sox and Angels, McCarver expressed his point of view.

“The most salient thing that comes to my mind is the catcher can feel he has caught the ball without it short-hopping into the mitt,” McCarver said. “As a catcher you just automatically roll the ball back to the pitcher. Inning over.

“Josh Paul caught the ball. He knew he caught the ball. You know if there is leather between the dirt and the ball. As a catcher, he just knows that instinctively. I know Josh Paul has been taking some heat, but he shouldn’t be.

“If anything, give credit to A.J. Pierzynski for running down to first base. He took a shot, and it worked out for him.”

Eddings said after the game that the ball changed directions before it reached Paul’s glove, meaning it hit the dirt.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see it that way,” McCarver said. “Every replay I saw shows that ball was caught.

“I think the White Sox know they got away with one. But what are they going to do, not take it?”

McCarver said he has never seen anything quite like it.

Some people have compared Eddings’ call to Don Denkinger’s calling the Kansas City Royals’ Jorge Orta safe at first against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series.

“That was my first World Series” as a broadcaster, McCarver said. “I was on a platform with [Cardinal Manager] Whitey Herzog all ready to talk about them winning a world championship. The platform had to be dismantled.

“This was a lot different. This was not an out or safe call. This was easier to call, and it may end up being the story of this series, of this season.”

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Important Lunch Date

This could this be an omen: Pat Haden, the former Trojan quarterback and current NBC Notre Dame commentator, was at USC Wednesday to tape an interview with quarterback Matt Leinart that will be shown during NBC’s USC-Notre Dame coverage Saturday.

Leinart, who is always as accommodating as possible when it comes to media obligations, told Haden he might have to cut the interview short because he was meeting his father for lunch.

So why was the lunch date so important?

“Matt, a great kid who has been raised right, said having lunch with his father on Wednesdays has become a tradition,” Haden said. “The last time they didn’t meet for lunch was the week USC lost to Cal [in 2003].”

USC hasn’t lost since.