[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

How many times have you personally knocked a player down?

Snaqs:

I have never (with apologies to J. Dallas Shirley) knocked a player down, but years ago, before Mark was a gleam in my eyes, I got "tackled" by a player diving for a loose ball that was going out of bounds along my sideline. The game was a boys' H.S. freshmen game; I don't know why the player dived for the ball because his team would have gotten the ball because it was going OOB off his opppoenent. The game was on the Friday afternoon of the last week of the OhioHSAA regular season. I officiated a NAIA women's college regular season game the next afternoon when I really shouldn't have because: The following Monday I found out that I had suffered a strained MCL and a cracked tibia in my left leg. I did not return to officiating until the opening week of the H.S. baseball season. The best thing of returning to officiating was that my first baseball game of the season was a boys' H.S. freshmen game (I was behind the Plate) and the Lead Off Batter for the Visitor's was the basketball player that had ended my basketball season. He didn't know the extent of my injury; I told him that it was not a problem, but he had better be swinging every at bat because every pitch he saw was going to be a strike, .

MTD, Sr.