Foul Play

Foul Play

I really liked baseball, but as I said before many times, I was not very good at it. So I tried other things, like turning the lights on and off at the park close to my house, Charjean park. I also had to keep score for the ladies soft ball games one night a week. The Memphis Park Commission also needed umpires as well, so I took the test and became an umpire. This also wasn’t the best job for me. The one game that I can’t seem to forget was the one that made me quit umpiring. It was a playoff game and the two teams were unevenly matched. The better team had 4 runs by the second inning to ZERO. A young man came up to bat that looked like he would have been more comfortable reading a book and he gave me the impression that was where he really wanted to be right now. He was very nervous and sweat was dripping from his forehead and it was hot that day so I shook off my concern and announced “Play Ball”. The first pitch was low and outside, ball one, but the young man was crowding the plate and he almost fell over trying to get his shoulders to the same level as the ball. I was even more concerned now, what was he up to or was I over thinking this. The next pitch was chest high but way outside. The young batter this time leaned in and reached out with his hands but not in a way that anyone could have swung at the pitch. I noticed that he had closed his eyes as if a nurse was about to give him a shot with a needle and he almost broke his neck to try to keep from falling. The next pitch was looking like a perfect strike but the young batter moved in to the pitch and closed his eyes in the same manner. He dropped his arm right in the way of the pitch and made no attempt to get out of the way and his eyes were still closed tight right before the ball hit him in his arm. The position he was in when the ball hit him was one no one could have even tried to swing a bat to hit the ball with.  It was how you would be positioned if you wanted to be hit by the pitch. I yelled “OUT”!  Before I could get my mask off, the coach from the team that was in the field was all over me and yelling at me and the coach of the young batter was also joining in and everyone in the stands. I have always closed down when I get upset, even to this day. I wanted to eject the coach for allowing or teaching a player to put his or her safety in jeopardy for a game. But I could not think clearly, so I looked at both coaches and said loudly to both of them “ a batter cannot intentionally block the plate and he is out, Play ball or forfeit the game”.  After the game was over the next day I went to the park commission and quit. I have always since that day gone over in my mind everything I saw and did. Was I wrong for calling him out? I have finally come to terms with what I did and I have only one regret. It is that I did not throw the batter’s coach out of the park and try to have him banned from coaching little league for life. What do you think?