Douglas Leon Eddings (born September 14, 1968) is an American professional

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. He wears uniform number 88.

Early life

Eddings first umpired baseball games at 12 years old at the request of his mother, who was on the board of the local Little League. Eddings attended Mayfield High School in New Mexico and

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

before attending Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School. He officiated high school baseball, basketball and football game in New Mexico for over a decade.

Career

In his early career, he worked throughout the minor leagues. He started working

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

games in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, and has worked throughout both major leagues since 2000. In the postseason, Eddings has worked four Wild Card Games/Series (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

), seven Division Series (including his postseason debut in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

), three League Championship Series (

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

), and two World Series (

). He also worked the 2004 All-Star Game, the

2023 World Baseball Classic The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball tournament and the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It began on March 8, 2023, and ran until March 21. It was originally scheduled to take place in ...

, and was the replay official for the 2017 All-Star Game. Eddings was promoted to crew chief in .

Notable games

Eddings was the home plate umpire for Cal Ripken Jr.'s final major league game on October 6, 2001. He was the second base umpire for the game between the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

and the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

on August 4, 2007, at San Diego when

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants f ...

tied

Hank Aaron Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Considered one ...

for first place on Major League Baseball's career home run list by hitting his 755th career home run. He was the home plate umpire for Carlos Rodon's no-hitter thrown on April 14, 2021. Eddings was the home plate umpire for Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS between the

White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The club plays its home games at Rate Fie ...

and the

Angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

. White Sox batter A. J. Pierzynski quickly got two strikes and then swung at the third pitch, a splitter which came in very low. Angels catcher Josh Paul caught the ball so "thought the inning was over.""Inside Baseball". Verducci, Tom (October 13, 2005), ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''. Copy a

Not hearing himself called out, Pierzynski took a couple of steps toward the dugout, then turned and ran to first base while most of the Angels were walking off the field. Eddings ruled that the ball had not been legally caught (an uncaught third strike), but made no audible call that the ball hit the ground.

Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster for ESPN. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for Fox's Nati ...

and Tim McCarver, announcing the game on Fox and reviewing replays of the pitch, felt the ball had clearly been caught; note that MLB did not adopt review via instant replay until the season. A pinch runner for Pierzynski subsequently scored the winning run of the game for the White Sox. According to umpire supervisor Rich Rieker, the replays showed "there was definitely a change in direction there" indicating the ball touched the ground and felt, at best, the replay was inconclusive. After the game, Eddings said he would adjust his umpiring style to clarify a third strike call from calling the batter out. In July & August 2021, Eddings would once again come under fire after being the home plate umpire in two

games. The first, on July 24, saw the ejections of Padres left fielder Tommy Pham and associate manager Skip Schumaker. The scorecard report on Eddings' performance also showed a +0.69 skew for the Padres opponent (which coincidentally happened to be the Marlins). Afterwards, the Padres filed a formal complaint against Eddings due to the result of the game. The next game, on August 20, saw the ejections of Padres manager Jayce Tingler, third baseman

Manny Machado Manuel Arturo Machado (; born July 6, 1992) is an American professional baseball third baseman and shortstop for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). Highly recruited from an early age, he was raised in Miami, where he attende ...

, and development coach Ryan Flaherty. The report for this game showed a greater skew (+1.21) that also favored the Padres opponent (this time, the Phillies). Eddings worked his 3,000th game on June 13, 2023, at

Globe Life Field Globe Life Field is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers. It is located just south of the Rangers' former home ballpark, Globe ...

in Arlington, Texas.

Umpiring style

A report in '' The Hardball Times'' listed Eddings as having called the largest

strike zone In baseball, the strike zone is the area of space through which a pitch must pass in order to be called a strike even if the batter does not swing. The strike zone is defined as the volume of space above home plate and between the batter's kne ...

among all Major League umpires in 2011.

References

External links

Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eddings, Doug 1968 births Living people American League umpires Major League Baseball umpires People from Las Cruces, New Mexico Sportspeople from New Mexico New Mexico State University alumni