My name Is Kevin Snyder. I am from Dayton, Ohio and I am 23 yaers old. As a youth I have played football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and am currently involved in auto racing. I do not have a degree in writing, but I can assure you that my passion for writing and sports are not limited by my achievements. I have grown to love all aspects of everything athletic growing up playing sports. My hobbies include writing and sports, hence my passion to become a sports writer. The Chicago White Sox steal game two of the ALCS on a controversial call by home plate umpire Doug Edding. Read on for the story.
The Chicago White Sox found themselves down 1-0 in the American League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Angels heading into Chicago on Tuesday, but pulled out a controversial 2-1 victory to tie the series 1-1.
In the bottom of the first, Scott Podsednik hit a ground ball to the pitcher, who fielded the ball cleanly, but overthrew first base for an error. Podsednik reached second base on the play, then tagged up and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly out to the pitcher.
With one out and Podsednik on third, Jermaine Dye stepped up to the plate and delivered, hitting a RBI ground to shortstop Orlando Cabrera to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead over the Angels in game two of the ALCS.
The game saw no more runs until the top of the fifth, when Angels' third basemen Robb Quinlan homered to deep left field to knot the score at 1-1. From then on it would be a pitchers’ battle, as nobody would score through the remaining three innings.
Heading into the ninth, it was up to the Angels to produce anything they could muster, but they went down "1-2-3" and would have to stop Chicago to force extra innings to pull out a victory.
After Carl Everett grounded out to first and Aaron Rowand was called out on strikes, the Angels found themselves just one out away from extra innings. That would all change when A.J. Pierzynski stepped up to the plate.
With two strikes against him, Chicago’s Pierzynski swung at a low-breaking ball pitch that appeared to be caught by Angels catcher Josh Paul and was called out on strikes. Home plate umpire Doug Edding made the motion with his arm for out number three as Pierzynski ran to first. But then, for some reason, Edding reversed his call, which put Pierzynski safely at first base in what will probably be the most controversial call in the history of Major League Baseball.
Angels' Pablo Ozuna, who was called to pinch run for Pierzynski, stole second base to put him just 180 feet away from scoring the winning run with Joe Crede coming up to the plate. With two outs, Crede hit a double off of the left field wall to score Ozuna and give the White Sox a 2-1 victory, and more importantly, tie the ALCS at 1-1.
The NFL adopted instant replay to overturn controversial calls such as this. The NBA has it … college football now has it. So why hasn't Major League Baseball adopted instant replay?
It seems like the type of play that occurred in this game would not have been a problem had MLB had instant replay to overturn mistakes made by officials and make the rightful result of the play on the field.
There should be no reason why MLB does not have the instant replay, and if this play doesn't change Bud Selig’s mind, I don't know what will.