Rick Liblong: Random ramblings
Umpires
My friend Dennis Thomas said to me: “Why don’t you write about being a baseball umpire since you were 1.”
OK.
Since I saw my first live major league game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit in 1957, I have been a baseball nut. I loved playing the game from little league through high school. When my playing days were over, my college roommate, Bruce Kefgen, and I volunteered to umpire in the Lansing area for kids 10-12 years old.
Bruce and I went all out. Major League umpires wore gray slacks, blue shirts, black narrow ties and a cap with a short bill. We dressed the part. We would alternate calling balls and strikes behind the plate and umpiring the bases.
When I moved to Midland I umpired for years in various league/age levels. I learned that many calls at first base are actually done by sound rather than sight. The foot makes a “thuf” sound hitting the bag and the ball makes a “snap” sound hitting a glove. If it was “thuf, snap” the runner was safe and vice versa.
Umpiring is not easy. A home plate umpire will make up to 250-300 calls a game. Odds of getting every call correct are slim. But, of course, they try. Detroit Tigers fans will recall that in 2010, first-base umpire Jim Joyce cost Tiger pitcher Armamdo Galarraga a perfect game (27 up, 27 down) with a terrible call. Replay showed that the runner was out by a full step but Joyce ruled safe. There was no appeal in those days. There have been only 24 perfect games in all of MLB history.
One good thing came of it, however. Plays can now be appealed and overturned by video replay. Every pitch can be challenged as well. And everyone in the stadium and watching on TV can see on the video board whether the ump was right or wrong. Has to be embarrassing at times.
Umpires, me included, used to use an outside chest protector. Now they wear it inside their clothes. The mask is still necessary and I can tell you from personal experience that a foul ball off your mask will ring your bell.
So, ease up on criticism of umpires. Or, better yet, volunteer to be one yourself. There’s satisfaction in saying, “Strike three! You’re out!”
“She Ships”
Why are ships referred to as “she”? There are many ships named after women, which is appropriate, and by all means refer to them with “she left port today.” But the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier should not be referred to as “she.” President Ford was very much a man. I believe ships named for men should be addressed by the ship’s name or “it.”
Greatest Generation
Every generation of Americans has had to face its own issues and problems. And, fortunately, usually overcame them and the country moved forward. Issues like war, peace, industrialization, economics, immigration, etc. The list is endless.
Tom Brokaw, former anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” wrote that the World War II generation “is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.” He argued that these men and women fought not for fame and recognition, but because it was the “right thing to do.”
I agree that it was a special generation, overcoming the Great Depression, war, economic upheaval and numerous other problems. But my vote for greatest generation goes to the Founding Fathers (and mothers). Breaking away from British rule and setting up our republic, never done before, makes them, in my view, greater than any others, before or since.
Your thoughts?
