Another sport, but a memorable recall
. Baseball regional championship, 4 man crew - I had the plate......
(1) R @ 1, batter hits line drive down LF line;
(2) U @ 3 goes out to rule fair/foul catch/no catch;
(3) my job was to cover 3rd as R from 1st is heading there;
(4) fair ball drops in, LF's throw appears to be heading up the line;
(5) U @ 1 should now be covering home;
(6) U @ 1 was watching birds fly over - his name was Tom;
(7) I yell, "TOM, GO HOME..GO HOME..";
(8) R slides safely into 3rd as 3rd baseman knocks down throw;
(9) Runner stands up, brushes off and starts to jog home;
(10) pitcher scowls at me, runner crosses home as Tom watches;
(11) coach comes running out asking, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED
!";
(12) I responded, "it appears he just stole home
.";
(13) coach then yelled at pitcher, "
WHY DIDN'T YO MAKE A PLAY ON HIM
!";
(14) Pitcher responded, "" gee ,coach ,he looked like he knew what he was doing
";
(15) I
laughed;
(16) Coach spun around and said, "
THAT'S NOT FUNNY
THAT WAS THE TYING RUN
.."
(17) I answered, " you're right , coach, I apologize
..."
Epilogue : I ran into the runner's coach a few days later and he had this to say about that incident, "our runner is an all-star from the eyebrows down. His name is TOM and he thought you were telling HIM to go home
". This occurred 25+ years ago, and have since ran into the opposing coach several times. I shared the "TOM" story with him, and he got a
chuckle - his team did end up winning . I probably would have brought it up if he had lost
. I last ran into that coach at a funeral of a mutual friend. When he spotted me he came over and said, "hey, ump 'TOM GO HOME'
".
...as Paul Harvey used to say...
AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY...