For the first day, my crew was assigned to the later pair of games – 2:00 and 8:00. (The other games were at 11:00 and 5:00). I was assigned first base for our first game, for which I was thankful. Since we were using 6 umpires for all games, there is little in the way of “mechanics” to worry about – in a 4-man system, you have umpires “going out” to cover fly balls, and other umpires “rotating” to cover the bases left vacant. With 6-man, however, the two umpires in the outfield take all the fly balls, leaving the infield umpires to just worry about their bases. Other than the plate, first base “feels” the closest to the 2-man mechanics we use most of the year, so it was a great position at which to get into the swing of things.
The game was hot – it was bright sun, in the 90’s and humid, and, of course, we were wearing black shirts. They look great on TV and during night games, but they’re not my favorite for afternoons in the sun. Jerry Fisher had the plate. Vermont went up 4-0 early, but then New Hampshire’s bats woke up, and they powered their way to a 13-5 win. We had been warned to be deliberate in our out calls, particularly on outfield catches, in order to make sure that we didn’t signal “out” and then have the fielder drop the ball. Michael McDowell, who had the right field line behind me, did a great job on this when the right fielder charged in and made a diving, rolling catch on a fly ball right by the line. He was a roly-poly kind of kid you wouldn’t pick out as an athlete. The fielder rolled on top of the ball, and Michael waited until he rolled over and held the glove up with the ball in it before signaling the out. Jeff Holliday, who had second, said after the game that the shortstop had said to the second baseman “I didn’t know he could do that,” to which the second baseman replied, “What? Fall down?”
I got my introduction to the Eastern Regional dining hall for dinner. Not exactly haute cuisine, but when you’re feeding 12 teams and assorted umpires and staff three times a day, you don’t expect that. The only real issue is that the dining hall wasn’t air conditioned, and so it was hovering around 89 degrees inside – the ceiling fans were running, but didn’t help a lot. Later in the week they ended up opening the emergency exits in order to get some air through, which made it a bit more bearable.
Between the end of the 5:00 game and the beginning 8:00 game they held the “opening festivities.” All the teams paraded in with their banners, and were introduced. Speeches by the Regional Director and the Mayor of Bristol followed. A tribute was included to a firefighter who had played in an Eastern Regional game some years ago, and who was killed evacuating people from the Twin Towers during 9/11. His number 11 is “retired” in right field, the position he played. (They made a point of the fact that his position was 9 and his number was 11 – I gather that one of the scoresheets from one of his games is in the Williamsport museum to honor him.)
The 8:00 game was a doozy. Jeff Holliday had the plate as Connecticut and Rhode Island engaged in a pitcher’s duel. Connecticut finally pushed a run across in the bottom of the fifth, and was able to hold off Rhode Island in the sixth. You had to feel for the Rhode Island starter – he pitched 4-1/3 innings of 1-hit ball with 9 strikeouts before reaching his pitching limit. His replacement gave up two hits and the run. The Connecticut pitcher pitched a complete game 2-hitter, with 13 of the 18 outs coming by strikeouts. I had the right field line for this game, so saw virtually no action – the hits were all ground balls.
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