Why Not Do The Right Thing?

For eleven years, I umpired high school and college baseball games. I truly enjoyed those years. I am sure that my pitching background drew me to that challenge and experience. I took great pride in home-plate game management. I was undoubtedly a 'pircher's umpire.' That equates to a plate umpire 'calling' the game (pitches) with respect to a true strike zone! That zone was the batter's arm pits to the top of his knees when assuming a normal batting stance. Of course, the width of the plate is 17 inches...so there you have it. I gave the pitcher's the 'black-edges' of the plate. I recall once walking onto the baseball field at Southern Illinois Unversity @ Edwardsville and the late Roy Lee, manager of the Cougars said to his dugout gang (loud for me to hear), "Good blue behind the plate today guys...but he has a HIGH ZONE." Roy was one of the best trying to 'bait.'

I thought about umpiring the other day when I heard a politician avoid answering this interview question: "Instead of repealing and replacing Obamacare, why don't you Republicans and Democrats sit down together and address the current Obamacare and fix areas that need fixing while leaving in place that which is good?" The politician gave a lot of gobbledygook in avoiding an honest answer. If he was honest he would have stated: 'Our side must be RIGHT and the other side must be WRONG.'

I immediately recalled a baseball play that happened in a college game. Runners were on first and second and with one out both runners ran on the pitch that the batter hit into the outfield. The fielder made a great catch and the runners who had touched their next bases were scrambling to return to their respective bases to avoid being doubled-up. The lead runner bumped into the trailing runner as the second baseman obstructed the trailing runner. We had a delayed-ball call-situation. When play stopped both managers ran from their dugouts screaming as they were pleading their cases as they perceived. I immediately pointed to each manager and told them to return to their dugouts. Furthermore, I told them, "I'm going to confer with my partner and we are going TO GET IT RIGHT."

        (Touch)
Get It Right