Doug Eddings and California's third strike law

So was it a called out, or simply a called strike three? We'll never know, but it's unlikely to ever satisfy fans of the Angels who feel they were done out of an out, and as it turns out, done out of a win. Signs reading 'Chicago White Sox: Fixing games since 1919' turned up as expected in Anaheim for the next game ,and so did the boo-birds who fixated on A.J. Pierzynski and Umpire Doug Eddings. Fans cheered loudly each time Eddings, who was manning the right field line in Game 3, made a correct call of a fair or foul ball.

FYI, it was long-time New York Yankees organist Mr. Eddie Layton who is credited with writing the fan-favorite and ballpark staple "da..da..dum da dum....Charge!" Wilbur Snapp is another famous ballpark organist who made his fame by being ejected from a minor-league game after he heckled the umpires with "Three Blind Mice,".

Origins of Heckling

Baseball hecklers do not have the monopoly on heckling. In fact, the origins of "heckling" can be found in the textile trade. They were the ones who combed out flax or hemp fibres. Its meaning as we know it today took shape in the early 19th Century when radical, unionised 'hecklers' would interrupt those responsible for reading out the day's news.

And so it was that the word became associated with rapid fire questions aimed to "tease" or "comb out" truths that the speaker might wish to conceal or avoid.

If we look back further, we see that heckling was going on much earlier, in Elizabethan theatre, where it was accepted as part of the boisterous atmosphere to shout at stage-actors. Heckling was famously characterised in the 1970's "Muppet Show" by the old gentlemen in the balcony named Statler and Waldorf.