Typhoon

I was at a clinic a few years ago and the clinician tells the story of an exhibition game he was doing between Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays (Pearson Cup). Of course both teams had a lot of players from the minors in the line up. Well the Toronto pitcher put one knee high on the outside corner of the plate and of course it was called a strike. The batter, a minor league player called up for the game said "come on blue I would need a six foot bat to hit that pitch". Ernie Whit who was catching for Toronto replied "That's why your still in the minors kid" It took about five minutes to get the game going again the umpire was laughing so hard.

How did I get into umpiring? I played a lot of sandlot ball since I was about 11 yrs old. I wasn't too bad at it. I joind the Canadian Armed Forces in 1960 and I was sent to a training facility to train as an aero-engine mechanic. There wasn't a course scheduled for quite a while and I was assigned to the station pool and had quite a bit of free time. I tried out for the base ball team and became the starting center fielder. This was considered quite a feat as I was technically a student and they didn't usually make the team. To make a long story short, one day on the way to practice I was cutting across one of the other diamonds and the umpire called me over and asked if I would umpire the bases for him. I said I had a practice to go to, so he walked over to the big diamond and squared it with the coach. I loved it, and to TOP it off I got paid. That was 50 yrs. ago and I haven't looked back.

This brings to mind an incident that happened in a HS game a few years ago. It was the last inning and the team at bat had just scored a run to take the lead. There was 1 out and a runner on 3rd base. The pitcher caught him leaning the wrong way and picked him off and a rundown ensued. The pitcher ran him down and tagged him with more than excessive force in the middle of the back. I made the out call and was about to EJ the pitcher when from the opposing dugoutwe heard "Throw the n----r out". Did I mention that the pitcher was African-American. To say the least I was stunned as was my partner. I thought Oh Oh now we're for it, as all the pitchers brothers were in the stands. Before anyone had a chance to do anything the 3rd base coach (who is also a senior umpire in our association) turned to the dugout and pointed to the player and said "you get on the bus and after the game is over you are going to explain to that gentleman why you used that term" It completely defused the situation. In a conferance with my partner we decided not to eject the pitcher, just give him a stern warning. But it just goes to show that some coaches do take their jobs seriously.

I have been umpiring a good number of years and my worst injury was last year. I was doing the Ontario Bantam fastball championships and one of the players hit the ball and threw her bat. It caught me on the left wrist. Boy did it swell and it hurt like hell. I finished the game and the next one as well with my indicator in my right hand, and I was in considerable pain. I went to the doctor and he sent me to the fracture clinic unfortunately it didn't open until Tuesday morning. Monday night I had the Ladies fastball city championship to do. I did both games of a the doubleheader. Tuesday morning at the fracture clinic they confirmed that one of the bones in my wrist was broken. I was in a cast for 15 weeks. I only missed a couple of games, but I never want to go through that again. Tony

It's a local term for softball, or fastpitch.

Thats almost as bad as the day Norm Cash came to bat for the Tigers with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth with Nolan Ryan working on a no-hitter. No one seemed to notice that Cash had a table leg from the clubhouse instead of a bat in his hand. He finally asked the PU (Luciano) are you gonna let me hit with this? The umpire doubled over with laughter and ordered him to get a regulation bat. Cash immediately popped out to end the game and Ryan got the second no-htter of his career. Tony

I was doing a university fastball game and had the same sitch. The ball hit the ground, bounced up and hit the batter. "TIME" batter to first base on the HBP. Catcher turned to me and said "it hit the ground the ball is dead". All I said, no today is fastpitch, tomorrow when the slowpitch league is playing it will be a dead ball when the pitch hits the ground. The light went on then and she said Oh yeah sometimes I get confused. Hope she wasn't going to be a doctor Tony

Hello All: I live and umpire in Canada, oddly enough I live S. of Detroit Mich. I am carded in Fastball and Baseball and do all levels in both. I mainly do fastball though as that was the game I played growing up. Of course my wife disputes the fact that I have grown up. Tony