You Stink Blue...Championship Saturday

Forget about the Final Four, this was the real Championship Saturday. The Division A championship was at 8 am, followed by the Division B championship at 10 am, both on the Great Lawn, then the winners square off for the Little League Championship at 2 pm at the North Meadow. And yours truly was working all three. But this time, I had help. Games this big required 2 umpires…real official stuff. Hey the kids were impressed. You should be too.

I get to the field around 7:30 and both teams are already warming up. Yup, they meant business alright. The Stallions and the Panthers would square off for the Division A Championship. I recognized the Panthers, wearing the blue shirts, as I had worked them before, but the Stallions looked new. I was behind the plate for this game, basically because I arrived at the field before Ty, my partner, and I already had the gear on. After the usual pregame meeting with the coaches, it was time to play ball.

Have you ever seen the pitcher go up to the umpire and shake his hand BEFORE the game starts? Well, it happened to me this game. Nice kid, the coach’s son I think. Just before we got underway, one of the Panthers on the bench says, “Did we bring the steroids?” Thanks MLB.  Anyway, the blue shirts struck first in an action packed 1^st inning. After retiring the Stallions in order in the top half, they loaded the bases in the bottom half. A sac fly later and it was 1-0. Then a little action. With runners on 1^st and 2^nd and 1 out, the batter hits a ball back to the pitcher. The throw goes to 1^st base, but a little wide and the 1^st baseman drops the ball trying to stretch. The runner from 2^nd comes around 3^rd and tries to score, but a great throw and an even better tag gets him at the plate. But the highlight of the play had to be my out call. Now, a quick side note: In the beginning of the season, we were told not to be too dramatic with our strike out and out calls to the Little Leaguers because it “made them feel bad.” Well, maybe it was the fact that it was a championship game, but I got caught up in the excitement and gave an out call that Eric Gregg would have been proud of. The second baseman ended the inning with a spectacular diving catch up the middle, and it was 1-0 at the end of 1.

The Panthers exploded in the 2^nd, scoring 4 runs. Here’s what happened: A bunch of kids got hits, causing a bunch of other kids to score. I ruled a foul tip which might not have been. I thought I heard a tip, but it could have just been the ball hitting the catcher’s glove, which he dropped. Lesson learned: See the tip, don’t hear it. 5-0 Panthers. The home team brought in a new pitcher in the top of the 4^th and he threw pretty hard. Not only that, but on a come backer to him to end the inning, he showed the runner the ball before flipping to 1^st. It was classic. In the next inning, I ruled catcher’s interference which I didn’t want to, but the catcher, a really small kid, reached for the ball and the swinging bat hit it, knocking the glove off. I had no choice. The catcher didn’t understand what he did wrong and started to cry. I wanted to give him the “There’s no crying in baseball speech”, but I decided to just explain what he did wrong. For the rest of the inning, he complained about every single pitch, whining in a voice even his mother would find annoying. The final was 9-3 Panthers; they were headed to the Championship game in the afternoon. Good for them.

Time to work the bases for the Division B Championship between the Bears and the Colts. The shortstop put on a defensive clinic for the 1^st 2 innings, recording 3 assists, and wouldn’t you know it…we had ourselves a pitchers duel. Do you believe that? A pitchers duel in Little League baseball. The Colts broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 3^rd (I don’t remember how they scored), and then gave up a run in the top of the 4^th on a throwing error to the catcher. With the bases loaded, the next batter hits one back to the pitcher, who decides to run home and get the force out himself. As he walks back to the mound, he says out loud, “I’m not taking a chance by throwing it, I’ll do it myself.” In the bottom half of the 4^th, my boss Hector shows up…with my paycheck for the season. As Borat says…Niiice! The bullpen for the Bears fell apart in the bottom of the 5^th, walking in 3 runs, and the Colts won 4-1. I’m sure more went on in the game, but I didn’t write any notes about it, and it’s been too long for me to remember. Oh, but I did get a cookie from one of the mom’s after the game. I think it was oatmeal.

So the stage was set: The Colts and the Panthers for all the marbles on the North Meadow. My buddy Bill came to watch me work, but when I told him I wasn’t working behind the plate, he left. Loser. I must have known something though, because after this game, I’m glad I didn’t put the gear on. And Bill may have missed the single greatest Little League game ever. Ever. I’ll try and be brief with this, cause there’s just too much to write about and I know all of our time is precious. Perhaps if there ever is a book version, you’ll get the full story. But for now, you’ll have to settle for the Cliffs Notes version.

With some kind of Puerto Rican music festival going on across the street, the Colts and Panthers played in front of a large crowd on field #2 just off 96^th street. The parents were lined up down both foul lines. I had really never seen such a crowd. It was kind of exciting. They all came out for this one, including the mother who talked on her cell phone for 3 innings (way to pay attention mom), and the Asian mother, wearing the triangle rice hat and the long leopard print, velvet pants. Not to mention my boss, her boss, and maybe a couple scouts, I’m not sure. It was the place to be.

Both teams scored 2 runs in the 1^st inning, and then they go scoreless for the next 6 innings. Controversy reared its ugly head in the top of the 5^th. A runner is on with 2 outs. The batter swings and hits what appears to me to be a foul ball, as the ball hits the fence of the 1^st base dugout. Apparently, the ball hit the kid in the hands, not the bat. The umpire working the plate (a different guy than the 1^st 2 games), rules a hit by pitch. Coaches argue, and we conference. Now, my first instinct was to call the kid out, cause I thought the swing occurred before the kid got hit. The umpire said he wasn’t sure which occurred first, so we go with my call, strike 3, batter out. The other coaches go nuts and we conference again. I say that I’m not completely sure, so we call it a foul ball and the kid gets out on the next pitch. I later find out that I was right in the first place, once a batter swings, he must make contact with the ball, otherwise it is a swing and a miss. If he checks his swing and gets hit on the hands, it’s a HBP.

Ok, here comes the abridged version of what happened next. In the top of the 8^th, the first extra inning, the Colts score 2 on a double over the left fielder’s head. Game over, I’m thinking. The Panthers score 2 in the bottom of the inning and we go to the 9^th. No score in the top of the 9^th, the Panthers strand a runner at 3^rd in the bottom, and we go to the 10^th. Both teams don’t score, so we go to the 11^th. The Colts appear to end it again in the top of the inning on a double over the centerfielder’s head, scoring a runner from 2^nd. They strand 2, and dadgummit, the Panthers score one of their own in the bottom half, but not without a little controversy. Runners are on 1^st and 3^rd with 2 outs when the batter hits a ground ball to short. He throws the ball over the first baseman’s head and hits the fence behind the dugout. The tying runs scores, but the runner from 1^st tries to come all the way around to score. But the ground rules are that if the ball hits the fence on an overthrow, the ball is dead, and the runners get 2 bases. So I make the winning run go back to 3^rd, much to the chagrin of the Panthers coaches. The argument was so intense, my boss had to get involved and tell the coach to simmer down. I was calm the whole time, explaining that the ground rule was discussed prior to the start of the game, and that was it. Plus, why end a game like this on an overthrow?

We go scoreless in the 12^th; we’ve now played 2 full games. I tell the 1^st base coach of the Panthers that I need a beer. He tells me he needs a whole case. The game started at 2 pm. It’s now almost 6 pm. One of the mothers, mine I think, says, “How much longer are they going to play for? I’ve got tickets to a show in 2 hours.” In the bottom of the 13^th, the Panthers had a runner on 2^nd with 2 outs. The hitter was a small kid who I don’t think came close to making contact all season. He was one of those kids that looked like he was swinging in slow motion. So of course, he hits a long fly ball that looks like it’s going over the left fielder’s head, but the LF makes a great running catch. Yep, that’s why they play the games. After the Colts fail to score in the 14^th…yes that’s right…the 14^th inning…in Little League, both coaches decide that the bottom half of the inning will be the last, whether or not the Panthers score. They don’t, my legs are exhausted, and there are Co-Champs. Two winners, no losers, 14 innings, a little over 4 hours, and possibly the greatest Little League game ever.

And the best part was after the game, one of the kids from the Panthers gave me a Capri Sun fruit drink, a package of Oreo cookies, and told me I was the best umpire they had all year.  What a way to end my first summer as a Little League umpire. I can’t wait till next year.