5 man crew

[Richvee]

The thread titled "Jim Evan's 5 man clinic" reminded of a story a veteran umpire of Mlb, and D1 told us during a bull session one night during a recent clinic. How much it's been embellished I cannot say, but a funny story none the less. 

 

Arizona league years back before the AFL as we know it now. Evidently there was a team in Hawaii. It seems the 3 man crew doing the game there ran up quite a hefty bar tab the night before, and didn't have that kind of scratch to pay the tab. So they made a deal with the 2 bartenders and told them to meet them at the game the following evening. The crew gave them uniforms, a quick mechanics lesson and sent them down the left and right field foul lines to serve as left and right field umpires to settle the bar tab. They told the bartenders, look, we'll run our normal 3 man game, you two just call fair/foul down the outfield lines..nothing else. 

 

It all would have worked out fine if not for the fact that the UIC for the league had been listening to the game on the radio back in Arizona when the announcer said, "Well, I think this is the first time I've ever seen a 5 man umpire crew!  As the story goes, the UIC was in Hawaii before the crew finished the series. They were suspended on the spot and had to make their own travel arrangements to get back to the mainland! However, their bar tab was paid in full! 

 

[BaltimoreUmpire]

If I got into that situation I'd probably tell the bar tenders when they got there I was kidding, tell them I'd send um a check