Umpiring Moment of the Year

[UMP25]

It was not just one event but a series of events for me that stuck out in 2007. I had perhaps the weirdest series I've ever worked when I worked a 3-game weekend conference series with Bob Jenkins (doubleheader on Saturday, single on Sunday). The two schools were rivals in the CCIW Conference, and they happened to be two area teams, so they were quite familiar with each other. Moreover, the head coach of one team used to be an assistant at the other school. While there was no bad blood between the two teams or staffs, there were a myriad of freak plays, weird occurrences, rulings, you name it. I even had an ejection in game 1 of the series. It occurred early in the game, too.

To tell you how weird it was, Bob and I had a bunch of whackers and weird plays in the first two innings of the first game! We knew then we were in for one helluva series! I'm sure Bob would be happy to elaborate on specific plays.

BTW, when the 2008 schedule came out, I put Bob and me on the same series. We figured we're gluttons for punishment, and like one of my colleagues told me, "With Bob and you on the field, there's no way anybody can get a rule past you guys!"

[UmpJM]

Ump25,

...and like one of my colleagues told me, "With Bob and you on the field, there's no way anybody can get a rule past you guys!"

Isn't that kind of like saying Michael Jordan and Will Perdue combined for 46 points in the game?

JM

[UMP25]

Actually, I'd liken it to having Jim Evans and Chris Jaksa on the same game.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by UmpJM (nee CoachJM)

Isn't that kind of like saying Michael Jordan and Will Perdue combined for 46 points in the game?

Originally Posted by UMP25

Actually, I'd liken it to having Jim Evans and Chris Jaksa on the same game.

Or Wayne Gretzky and younger brother Brent are the highest scoring sibling duo in the NHL. Brent: 1 goal, Wayne: all the rest.

[RPatrino]

My two memorable moments:

1) EJ of former major leaguer, Mike "Tiny" Felder, after which he says, " Do you even know who I am?", I said, "sure Mike, you're the guy who warms up the bus today".

2) Plate, NCS Semi-final Playoff game, location is Mayberry RFD, drive time is 8 hours round trip, game time is 70 minutes. Dinner at Applebee's, priceless.

[umpduck11]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

Or Wayne Gretzky and younger brother Brent are the highest scoring sibling duo in the NHL. Brent: 1 goal, Wayne: all the rest.

Or Henry and Tommie Aaron......

[UmpJM]

Just to get back "on topic" (at least partially because, IMHO, the OP on this thread is the best post canadaump6 has ever made on this forum), I would say...

My most memorable experience this past season was getting assigned a Summer HS Varsity Regional playoff game between two schools who both have very good baseball programs and who also happen to be "cross-town rivals". This was the 2nd varsity game I had been assigned in my life.

I had the bases. Probably 20 pick-off & steal attempts during the game, many of them close, as well as a number of close plays on the bases on batted balls. Around the 4th inning, the pitcher catches the R1 leaning the wrong way and fires to 1st with a "low" throw. R1 recovers & dives back to 1B in a cloud of dust, but the F3 slaps the mitt on him before he can reach the base. I'm about to give F3 a "show me" when I see the ball lying in the dirt and step into a big "SAFE!!! Ball's on the ground!" I believe that everyone in attendance had initially thought the runner was out. Timing really is important.

Second most memorable was at a 14U travel game I did. I had done a couple of the home team's games earlier in the season. Decent game, lead goes back & forth a couple of times. Home team enters their last bats down 3 runs, manages to plate 2 and, with 2 outs, has the tying run at 2B & the lead run at 1st. I punch out the last batter looking at a called strike 3 to end the game.

As I promptly begin to exit the field, the home team head coach approaches. While I'm expecting to get something along the lines of "How could you call that...", he shocks me by telling me that he wanted to let me know he'd sent an e-mail to my assignor letting him know what a good job he thought I'd done in their previous games and letting me know that he hoped I'd be able to do some more of their upcoming games.

Kind of caught me by surprise, so I just said "Thanks" and left.

JM

[canadaump6]

Coach JM's experience reminds me of one I had last year. Regional championship tournament round robin game between two neighbouring cities, that have a good rivarly with one another. It was more or less an average ball game at the start, with team A taking the lead. Team B (losing) coach comes up to me between innings and mentions "you've called the best game of this tournament so far". A little bit later, team A coach (still winning) says "you're all over this guys curveball; it's nice to not have some old bag who won't call the curve". I mention to him that people miss curveballs because they miss it way too quickly.

Team B would later have a comeback to tie the game, we would go to extra innings where team A walked off with the win. It was just a really intense game with variations in tempo. I thought it was neat that both coaches appreciated my work, and doubt they were saying it to suck up to me.