Josh Paul - Poet?

[Mercy!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/sports/b...all/14paul.html

 

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October 14, 2005

No Rhyme or Reason to Player's Fame

 

By LEE JENKINS

 

No third-string catcher could have been better prepared for a nationally televised roast than Josh Paul.

 

The country now knows Paul as the backup to the backup catcher for the Los Angeles Angels who basically rolled Game 2 of the American League Championship Series right into the hands of the Chicago White Sox.

 

I know him better as a poet.

 

Ten years before Paul reached the national spotlight, he and I sat next to each other in a poetry-writing seminar in the fall semester of 1995 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. We were the only men in the class. It was a dream class.

 

But every week, when we handed out our poems, we braced for the ultimate in public humiliation. Our classmates would shred our metaphors. They would ridicule our rhymes. The criticism could not have been much more personal. We tried to stand up for each other when we were not getting shouted down.

 

Paul, baseball's newest whipping boy, was born in Chicago and grew up rooting for the White Sox. As a child, he wept when the White Sox hitting coach Charlie Lau died. As a college athlete, he took batting practice beneath the Vanderbilt football stadium until his hands grew callused. As a college student, he wrote poems that invoked the former White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk.

 

When the White Sox drafted Paul in 1996, he said about Fisk: "It would be an honor to squat in his footsteps." When he moved to the Angels two years ago, he told reporters: "I'm in heaven right now, no pun intended with the Angels thing."

 

He married a woman from San Diego, built a house in Arizona and mourned the loss of his former college teammate, Mark Hindy, who died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He would debate the merits of the war in Iraq with reporters, telling them, "There are days when I'm torn."

 

Last off-season, Paul called me for help with a project. His next-door neighbor, Patrick Nelson, was a high school senior and aspiring sportswriter. Paul was dedicating his evenings to helping Nelson write sports articles and improve his interview techniques. "I'm afraid I'm going to mess him up," Paul said.

 

Nelson is now a freshman at Washington State University and a sportswriter for the campus newspaper, The Daily Evergreen.

 

On Wednesday night, he watched the Angels game in his dormitory room in Pullman, Wash., instead of doing his sociology homework.

 

"I was so excited to see Josh get in there," Nelson said yesterday, adding that everything was changed by the play in question. "Man, it was a rough night. I couldn't sleep. I know he's a backup catcher, but he's a first-string person."

 

I was in the press box at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Wednesday when a reporter announced something about an Angels catcher and a questionable call and a bad decision and a fluke play and a winning run. An Angels catcher and a bad decision.

 

"Bengie Molina?" I asked.

 

"No way," the reporter said.

 

"Jose Molina?" I said hopefully.

 

"I don't think so," the reporter said. "Some other guy. Don't know his name."

 

"Not Josh Paul," I whispered, my head dropping on my laptop.

 

"That's it," the reporter said. "Josh Paul."

 

Baseball is full of Josh Pauls, players on the fringes, always fearing the next round of cuts, always hoarding their meal money for the day when it does not come. Those players are usually not heard from in the regular season, and they are almost never seen in the postseason.

 

But the Angels have two catchers who are often replaced by pinch-runners late in games, so when it came time to round out the playoff roster, they decided to carry a third catcher. Even though Paul, 30, had been released twice in his career and batted .189 this season, he could always run well for a catcher, he could handle pitchers, and he never, ever made a bad decision.

 

So he was on the field with two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday, catching a swinging third strike to A. J. Pierzynski, rolling the ball to the mound, running toward the dugout. That may be the everlasting image of this season. The home-plate umpire Doug Eddings ruled that the pitch hit the dirt, Pierzynski bolted to first base, and the White Sox went on to score the winning run and tie the best-of-seven series, 1-1.

 

As the television analysts hailed Pierzynski's base-running brilliance and wondered about the whereabouts of the Molina brothers, Eddings scolded Paul in the postgame news conference. I immediately flashed back to our poetry class. Once again, the criticism seemed excessive and unfair. Once again, I wanted to stand up for him.

 

Replays show that Paul caught the ball before it touched the ground. They also show that Eddings made a fist, the universal out sign. I am only thankful that Paul does not play for the Red Sox or the Cubs, whose fans would likely remind him of his mistake for the rest of his days.

 

I will see my old classmate this weekend in Anaheim. We can talk about the women from the poetry seminar, Vanderbilt's chances of having a winning football season and Nelson's articles about the Washington State volleyball team. I will not ask why he did not just take the half-second to tag Pierzynski.

 

Everyone else in class can do that.

 

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[White Sox Josh]

I know Josh and he is a great guy. His brother is a teacher at my school. We are gonna have him on our radio show so we will ask him about that play for sure.

[Rex Hudler]

I knew Josh when he was in Birmingham and hated that play happened to him. I loved that it happened to the Sox, however. I think deep down, Josh knows he messed up and could have prevented this whole mess.

 

Josh was one of the few players I knew that actually read books. I can't recall specific titles, but I am not talking sports and news. He was definitely smart and sometimes even a smart ass, but then again, aren't we all.

 

I thought the article posted was great until then end when the writer claims replays showed that the ball was caught. They didn't. At the very least they were inconclusive and proved that either way it was extremely close.

[Mercy!]

....I thought the article posted was great until then end when the writer claims replays showed that the ball was caught.  They didn't.  At the very least they were inconclusive and proved that either way it was extremely close.

Exactly.

 

The controversy surrounding this play is to be expected. But three themes that quickly emerged leave me shaking my head - that someone can look at those replays and say with absolutely certainty that one outcome or the other occurred; that that play should have any bearing on whether baseball institutes instant replay; and that AJ was somehow a cheater for his heads up play.

 

I think the hullabaloo will quiet down considerably after the Sox take this series 4-1 or 4-2.

[Chisoxrd5]

I know Josh and he is a great guy.  His brother is a teacher at my school.  We are gonna have him on our radio show so we will ask him about that play for sure.

 

 

Cool....say hi to Jeremy for me!

 

The Paul's are good people, was very happy the Sox won but I was none to pleased to see Josh in the middle of the contraversy.

 

And Rex of course he reads, he did go to Vandy...

[Texsox]

It was sad to see that happen to JP. I thought he handled the interviews very well. The ex-Sox angle is getting to be interesting.

 

Graffy

Colon

Paul

[rangercal]

It was sad to see that happen to JP. I thought he handled the interviews very well. The ex-Sox angle is getting to be interesting.

 

Graffy

Colon

Paul

David wells