UNWRITTEN RULE FOR OFFICIALS IN ALL SPORTS: Never cheat
EARLY ADVICE FROM MY MOTHER: "Use you,your & we;more then I,me & my when chatting. "
"Never say 'NEVER' "
SCENE : American Legion baseball, the Gators were playing at the Acadians. Nice sunny Sunday. Base ump and I arrive. Usually we umps are greeted by a collective yawn ,at best or a :"OH NO, NOT THOSE GUYS AGAIN
!".
ACT i : Today was different, a gentleman with a heavy middle-eastern accent leaped up and yelled: "THE UMPIRES ARE HERE, THE UMPIRES ARE HERE..LET'S CHEER !
" We soon learned that he was an Israeli doctor working at a hospital where the Gators were from. He was a dad to twins on the Gators -boy/girl twins....I know I'd never umped a game like that before.
ACT II : The Gators only had 11 players,the twins were kept on the bench setting side by side and eagerly pounding their gloves in unison. Let's call them Joseph and Josephine.
ACT III : Fast forward to the top of the 9th...AL plays 9 on Sundays and doesn't have a 10 Rule like NFHS. The Gators were trailing 16-0. Their coach stopped by to inform me of 2 pinch-hitters...Joseph would bat 2nd and Josephine would bat 3rd.
ACT IV : The leadoff batter was retired, Joseph the swung wildly a 3 pitches and KO'ed. Up came lil' Josephine. Cute kid, pigtails dangling out of her helmet and crouching over -hoping for a walk.
ACT V : First pitch was down the middle, I yell STRIIIKE, she looked back at me with terrior in her eyes. I had a flashback to several years prior to my nephew returning from a Little League game. He burshed into tears and announced he had made THE LAST OUT
!.
ACT VI : My heart melted as I wispered to the catcher : "If she doesn't swing, she's not going to strike out." He responded : "fine with me, ump
!". Next pitch was down the middle.."BALL ONE". A big ole 'Bubba was pitching and the catcher yelled out that it was a little low. Next pitch..same spot..BALL TWO...catcher giggled and yelled a little high that time.
Bubba understood and just lobbed in the next two pitches.
ACT VII: I yelled :"TAKE YOUR BASE
"Lil' Josephine screamed :" WHOPPIE" and skipped down to first. Her teammates that were packing their equipment ,stopped and began to cheer
.
ACT VIII: I was done with Josephine, but Bubba wasn't, he stepped off the rubber and threw the ball 10 feet over the 1st baseman's head. She scampered towards 2hd base as her teammates and ALL the fans cheered. Her 3rd base coach, all
, yelled to just stay there. The new batter asked me if he got the same strike zone, I responded : "No you might make the last out". He responded that he wanted to and poped up the infield.
ACT IX : Her teammates, lead by her dad, all raced out to congratulate Joesphine. I returned game balls to the home coach and informed him that if a team is ahead by 15+ runs, a little girl can't make the last out. He responded : "
I'm glad you did that, it gave them something ot cheer for
."
EPILOGUE : A few weeks later later a sportswriter for the Bangor Daily News interviewed her. She said that on the flight over, she was trying to Americanize herself and read that baseball was America's national pastime.b She knew shw would have to play softball in high school but felt baseball would help her learn about the sport. The scribe then asked what her highlight of the season was. She responded :"THAT'S EASY, IT WAS WHEN WE WERE PLAYING THE ARCADIANS, I WALKED AND STOLE SECOND"
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