How to Umpire Baseball and Softball » minor leagues

Chapter Nine: Why I’m in Texas

Editor — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:40:51 +0000

April 11 I am reminded why I’m umpiring baseball games in Amarillo instead of basking on the Russian River with Donna. I work my first plate game tonight—and I’m brilliant. The energy flows unimpeded, my timing is precise. I can umpire! The game is a rout—13-0, El Paso. No matter, for I could have handled [...]

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Chapter Nine: Why I’m in Texas

Chapter Eight: Opening Day

Editor — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:28:04 +0000

April 10 Potter County Memorial Stadium, home of the Amarillo Gold Sox, is a huge iron-beamed dinosaur of a park. Set in an industrial neighborhood of factories and vacant lots, this relic can hold 6,500 fans, but never does. Lugging equipment bags and hangered uniforms, Charlie and I trudge through the turnstile and into the [...]

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Chapter Eight: Opening Day

Chapter Seven: Separation

Editor — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:08:07 +0000

Donna and I stare into each other’s eyes, then hug, a lingering embrace with more than a touch of urgency. We have spent an intense two days together, camping out on sun-drenched southern California beaches, making love each time as though it were the last time. Now, at the Los Angeles Airport, we are saying [...]

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Chapter Seven: Separation

Chapter Five: John McSherry

Editor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:05:00 +0000

March 21 John McSherry visits us in camp today. Big John is a National League umpire, and few can imagine him doing anything else. In the off-season, he serves as chief field instructor for the umpire schools. He was Charlie’s and my instructor, and now he’s come to see us. Mostly he’s come to see [...]

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Chapter Five: John McSherry

Chapter Four: Fraternizing

Editor — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:00:09 +0000

March 17 Charlie has a facility for banter with black ballplayers that I lack with most white players. It’s as though they’re members of a secret club, with a secret language. Actually, Charlie speaks two languages. When he meets my white, middle-class parents, he sounds like Eddie Haskell greeting Beaver’s parents. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. [...]

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Chapter Four: Fraternizing

Chapter Two: Gene Autry’s Corral

Editor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:42:04 +0000

March 11 The minor-league Angels training camp in Holtville is an arrow-straight ten-mile drive under a huge sky, past serried lettuce rows and concrete irrigation ditches. At the Holtville complex, four baseball diamonds splay out like blades of a giant fan. The hub is a thirty-foot-high rotunda upon which farm directors control workouts and make [...]

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Chapter Two: Gene Autry’s Corral