Breaking down A.J. Pierzynski's steal of first

Who says you can't steal first base? No one anymore after watching White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski swipe the bag on a bizarre play that led to a much needed Chicago win in the bottom of the 9th in game 2 of the ALCS. Now I'm gonna get this outta the way before anyone has a chance to bring it up - there should absolutely not be instant replay in baseball. Human error is part of the game (see AJ actually swinging at that pitch which woulda been ball 4; and also Kelvim Escobar's hanging slider to Joe Crede which Crede crushed for the game winning hit) and there is absolutely no room for replay in baseball. And now I'm watching Woody Paige and Skip Bayless argue for instant replay - thats absurd. According to an article by Mark Kriedler (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2189974) baseball umpires get 90% of the call right. And as Kriedler also points out, that success rate is in a sport where players get to the Hall of Fame if they mess up 7 of 10 times. I really don't wanna harp on the replay part though and I have complete faith in Bud Selig that he won't allow replay into baseball. Moving on it was an great heads up play by Pierzynski who apparently learned from a similar play that happened to him behind the plate last year. Now as far as I'm concerned, its lookin like the ball did not hit the ground from the head on angle, but from the back left angle (over Pierzynski's shoulder if you will) it looked like the ball may have skimmed the dirt as it went into Josh Paul's glove. Either way, ump Doug Eddings gave his strike 3 call - he didn't call him out (unless he did verbally which catcher Josh Paul hasn't claimed; and AJ said he ran exactly for that reason - because he didn't hear Eddings call him out). Looking back at replays throughout the game the straight arm followed by the closed fist is Eddings' strike 3 call - it doesn't mean he called him out. So the argument that he signaled out and then safe has is baseless. And judging from what seemed like a very uncomfortable postgame press conference - the umps are standing by their call. Now moving on to Angels' catcher Josh Paul, former White Sox catcher, all he had to do was tag out Pierzynski. From my experience playing baseball (through highschool), the umps never really yelled out "he dropped the ball" , they just didn't call the batter out until he was tagged or after the throw to first and putout. Plain and simple, Paul should've tagged Pierzynski just to make sure. Now this is a good a point as any in our story to point out that Angels skipper Mike Scioscia was classy on the wrong side of bizarre call. He said that it shouldn't have come down to a tough break on a call for them to win - and he's right. There's no getting around that it was a tough break, but that call itself didn't lose the game for the Angels and Scioscia was smart enough to realize that. So despite whatever Frank Robinson and Jose Guillen might say about him, I've got a lot of respect for Scioscia. This brings us to the man on the mound Kelvim Escobar. After a shaky first inning of relief, Escobar had pitched great to this point. And even though he allowed pinch runner Pablo Ozuna to steal 2nd he got up 0-2 on Joe Crede. This is where Crede took advantage of the break the White Sox got (and has been overlooked the whole time - without that hit the game goes to extras anyway) and smoked a hanging slider off the left field wall just inches short of a home run. With the speedy Ozuna on second there wasn't anything close to a play at the plate and the ChiSox picked up a much needed win to even the series at 1-1 before they head to Anaheim. I have to imagine this is going to give a much needed boost to a Chicago team that has looked like nothing short of zombies these first two games. Little side note they're talking about this play on Rome is burning and maybe its me but Todd Zeile looks like he's on the tail end of a 3 day bender. But thats neither here nor there. Bottom line heading into game 3 of the ALCS - the Angels needed to take 1 of 2 in Chicago and they did, the White Sox needed a huge break to get going and they got it. Game 3 is next with John Lackey pitching his 3rd game in the postseason and Jon Garland about to make his first start of the postseason. Stay tuned.