Blackout Story

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Was laying down taking a quick snooze before a scheduled mens mod doubleheader in my town here..suddenly...the air gets VERY still....of course,its the beginning of the Great 2003 Grid Failure [I am about 65 miles north of NYC btw]! So I am sitting..listening to the inane coverage on NYC radio,wondering about my games...call comes from my assignor: He cant get ahold of the guy in charge of the league..he ASSUMES the first game MIGHT be played...so..I dutifully go up to the park at 6 [gametime: 6:30]..sure enough,two teams are assembling....barely..one team ends up with the BARE minimum of 8 to start so we manage to start game 1..me on the bases..around the 3rd inning, a police car pulls up to the side of the field fence,tells us that he has to start shutting all the town's parks down to the state of emergency..BUT he also says that he will go to all the OTHER parks in town first,before coming back to shut us down..SO..by this time the short handed team is,of course getting beat..BUT its not a real runaway..only 10-6 going into the bottom of the 5th,with the sun already have sunk below the trees...so me and my partner have a real problem..the visiting shorthanded teamcould thoretically tie the game in the top of 6th..but we wouldnt have enough sun to play the whole BOTTOM of the 6th..or Mr Policeman might show up to shoo us off the field..fortunately....the home team with the full squad FINALLY starts to try to shoot singles thru the 3 man infield...11-6..12-6...an out...13-6....ANOTHER out....finally a guy shoots a single to right,scoring another run and sending a runner to third,and also tries to stretch it to a double....the infielder gets the ball and PROBABLY tagged him in between the legs before he reaches second..I give a BIG 'safe' call anyways...even the guys on the team thats ahead flinch a bit.....sure enough..next batter...BOOM...3 run dinger,game over..my partner [ex-NYPD btw]comes up to me as we are heading to our vehicles, and says.."If you had called that runner at second out,I wouldve ripped your throat out!"..laughing of course...I consider one of my BEST lousy calls ever! BTW....I got MY power back after only 5 hrs...exactly...