Play Involving Paul Is One for the Books

Catcher's Writings Could Certainly Include Controversial Call

Umpire Doug Eddings is followed by Angels pitcher Kelvim Escobar and catcher Josh Paul during the disputed play in Game 2 of the ALCS. (By Charles Rex Arbogast -- Associated Press)

ANAHEIM, Calif., Oct. 13 -- Josh Paul attended Vanderbilt University, an English major with a soft spot for "Beowulf" and Yeats. "They taught me," he said of his English professors, "how to express myself through writing. What a gift that is. It opened up a whole new world to me." These days, whenever his day job -- as the Los Angeles Angels' third-string catcher -- permits, Paul spends long hours writing his first book, a work of nonfiction on a subject close to his heart.

"It's about catching strategy -- all the subtle things that go into the job," Paul said Wednesday afternoon, as the Angels took batting practice at Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field before Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

As part of his research, he has interviewed several former and current major league catchers -- including his Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, and Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, the former Chicago White Sox catcher who was Paul's idol as a kid growing up in suburban Buffalo Grove, Ill.

"And," Paul said, before jumping into the batting cage to take his hacks, "I've got some pretty cool interviews set up this winter."

Some five hours later, near the end of that night's game, Paul would be part of a bizarre and critical play that may force him to rework the introduction to his book, or at the very least, add another chapter. He could call it, "Never Assume -- Or, Why You Should Always Tag the Batter On a Pitch That Might Have Been In the Dirt, Even If It Really Wasn't."

With the Angels and the White Sox tied at 1, and with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Paul -- who, unlike the Angels' starting catcher, Bengie Molina, is entrusted to call pitches -- caught what appeared to be the third strike of an inning-ending strikeout, a split-fingered pitch that Angels reliever Kelvim Escobar threw past White Sox batter A.J. Pierzynski.

But in a sequence of events that has dominated the discourse around the ALCS the past 24 hours, and that has given Paul by far his biggest measure of fame as a big leaguer -- albeit for reasons he would rather not be famous for -- Paul rolled the ball back to the mound, Pierzynski ran to first base, and home plate umpire Doug Eddings ruled that the pitch was in the dirt and Pierzynski was safe at first.

The third out would never come. With the winning run now on base -- technically, on an error charged to Paul -- the White Sox' next batter, Joe Crede, lined a game-winning double off Escobar into the left field corner to send the series to Anaheim tied at one game apiece. Game 3 is Friday night.

"I caught the ball," Paul said in measured tones after the game. "When you catch the ball, you just walk off the field."

Paul, 30, was not available to the media on Thursday. The Angels were given a day off following a grueling travel schedule that has seen them play four games in four nights in New York, Anaheim and Chicago.

However, in Buffalo Grove on Thursday, Paul's parents were greeted all day long by a parade of local television and newspaper reporters, who remembered Paul fondly from his days as a high school star and also from the years he spent with the White Sox from 1999 to 2003.

"The majority of people realize the umpire made a mistake, that [the umpiring crew] tried to cover up," Bill Paul, Josh's father, said Thursday in a telephone interview. ". . . If the ball had been in the dirt, Josh would have reached over and tagged A.J. on the rear end."