Ah, the blessed day off. After two straight long, cold[1], and wet days at the fields, I am privileged this morning to do nothing but drink coffee, watch the ocean, and write. I woke up at my normal 7:15 a.m., but instead of preparing for and heading to class, I watched and mentally “worked” two major league games from last season. As those of you who have been reading the blog regularly can probably tell, I need mental reps as much or more than physical reps at this point in order to improve my confidence, my reactions, and my instincts as an umpire.
Saturday’s day at school began with an hour-long ceremony honoring Harry Wendelstedt for personally and aggressively spearheading the campaign to build the Ormond Beach Sports Complex. This beautiful facility now includes three professional-quality baseball fields, along with soccer, softball, and football venues. At the ceremony, multiple politicians from the city of Ormand Beach spoke upon the history of the facility, including the story of them laughing at Mr. Wendelstedt when he first proposed building it; Mr. Wendelstedt borrowing a bulldozer and personally beginning the clearing of 75 acres; and the eventual support and thankfulness from the entire community. Though I absolutely hate such ceremonies in general, having heard the story of the Ormand Beach Sports Complex, I felt that Mr. Wendelstedt richly deserved his recognition.
Then we went to work. I called pitches in the batting cage before lunch.[2] After lunch, since no local teams were available to play for us, we students had to play the afternoon games. And, since I was not called to work today[3], I got to play baseball the rest of the day.
I played the first six innings[4] at third base, where I committed one error, and made all of my other plays. I got a bit frustrated defensively, because we are not allowed to dive – I had at least two or three plays that I might have been able to make had I laid out. Since I did not make the time to take (Woodberry Forest coach) Henry Heil’s advice about getting my arm in shape in the fall, by the fifth inning my throws had lost all semblance of zip. So, though I wanted to play all 10 innings that day at third base, I offered my desirable infield position to anyone who wanted it.
Here’s what shocked me. A significant number of students chose to remain in the dugout and NOT to play in the game! I came in to take my turn at bat, and players were only too happy to put me to the front of the line. (Too much running, they said.) I had been disappointed all day in the lack of game intensity. Yeah, sure, some of the macho ex-players liked to show off how they could crush the ball. But they’d hit a ball over the slow-moving center fielder’s head, it would roll to the fence for so long that *I* might have notched an inside-the-park-job… and they’d stroll into second for a double. Only about three of us ever ran out a ground ball at a speed beyond walking pace. I got a hit, the next batter was retired to end the inning… and I found myself in the on-deck circle again. So I batted again, and laced a solid single to left. The next batter hit into an inning-ending double play. I jogged off the bases, only to hear the guy who had replaced me at third asking out of the game. “Anyone want third?” he shouted, while three other fielders also searched for replacements. I grabbed third base back. Sore arm or not, I wanted to play defense; and, it was better for the umpires to have defenders trying to play the game properly if poorly than to have fielders half-arse their way through the motions.
I’m amazed. Numerous fellow students have complimented me on my defensive prowess! That’s kind of silly, because in the grand scheme of baseball, my defensive ability is about high school junior varsity level. What I think they’re really seeing is that I hustle, I take every play seriously, I try to get to every ball, I make accurate if weak throws… There are lots of better baseball players here than I, but many of them either look the part, or are complete slackers on the field. I think I’ve gained a reputation because I look like I’d be completely worthless as an athlete, but I do far better than anyone thinks I should. In fact, the folks who have made the most plays, the ones I want playing when it’s my turn to umpire, are virtually all nerd-shaped short guys who play hard and have fun.
As for those who slack, let’s just say that while sacrilege has been committed, our pluralistic and tolerant society does not allow me to burn the heretics. Such a shame.
Saturday’s day at school began with an hour-long ceremony honoring Harry Wendelstedt for personally and aggressively spearheading the campaign to build the Ormond Beach Sports Complex. This beautiful facility now includes three professional-quality baseball fields, along with soccer, softball, and football venues. At the ceremony, multiple politicians from the city of Ormand Beach spoke upon the history of the facility, including the story of them laughing at Mr. Wendelstedt when he first proposed building it; Mr. Wendelstedt borrowing a bulldozer and personally beginning the clearing of 75 acres; and the eventual support and thankfulness from the entire community. Though I absolutely hate such ceremonies in general, having heard the story of the Ormand Beach Sports Complex, I felt that Mr. Wendelstedt richly deserved his recognition.
Then we went to work. I called pitches in the batting cage before lunch.[2] After lunch, since no local teams were available to play for us, we students had to play the afternoon games. And, since I was not called to work today[3], I got to play baseball the rest of the day.
I played the first six innings[4] at third base, where I committed one error, and made all of my other plays. I got a bit frustrated defensively, because we are not allowed to dive – I had at least two or three plays that I might have been able to make had I laid out. Since I did not make the time to take (Woodberry Forest coach) Henry Heil’s advice about getting my arm in shape in the fall, by the fifth inning my throws had lost all semblance of zip. So, though I wanted to play all 10 innings that day at third base, I offered my desirable infield position to anyone who wanted it.
Here’s what shocked me. A significant number of students chose to remain in the dugout and NOT to play in the game! I came in to take my turn at bat, and players were only too happy to put me to the front of the line. (Too much running, they said.) I had been disappointed all day in the lack of game intensity. Yeah, sure, some of the macho ex-players liked to show off how they could crush the ball. But they’d hit a ball over the slow-moving center fielder’s head, it would roll to the fence for so long that *I* might have notched an inside-the-park-job… and they’d stroll into second for a double. Only about three of us ever ran out a ground ball at a speed beyond walking pace. I got a hit, the next batter was retired to end the inning… and I found myself in the on-deck circle again. So I batted again, and laced a solid single to left. The next batter hit into an inning-ending double play. I jogged off the bases, only to hear the guy who had replaced me at third asking out of the game. “Anyone want third?” he shouted, while three other fielders also searched for replacements. I grabbed third base back. Sore arm or not, I wanted to play defense; and, it was better for the umpires to have defenders trying to play the game properly if poorly than to have fielders half-arse their way through the motions.
I’m amazed. Numerous fellow students have complimented me on my defensive prowess! That’s kind of silly, because in the grand scheme of baseball, my defensive ability is about high school junior varsity level. What I think they’re really seeing is that I hustle, I take every play seriously, I try to get to every ball, I make accurate if weak throws… There are lots of better baseball players here than I, but many of them either look the part, or are complete slackers on the field. I think I’ve gained a reputation because I look like I’d be completely worthless as an athlete, but I do far better than anyone thinks I should. In fact, the folks who have made the most plays, the ones I want playing when it’s my turn to umpire, are virtually all nerd-shaped short guys who play hard and have fun.
As for those who slack, let’s just say that while sacrilege has been committed, our pluralistic and tolerant society does not allow me to burn the heretics. Such a shame.
[2] Though my on-field work needs significant improvement, my mechanics calling pitches have been good so far. Whew.
[3] We umpire games every 2-3 days, not every day, because we have 120 students on three fields.
[4] Top and bottom… we didn’t really have two teams, we just rotated batters and kept the same fielders.
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