Day 2: Spain vs Chinese Taipei

Friday morning didn't start the way I would have planned it. During our meeting on Thursday, Runch asked Carlos Rey and I to get everyone together on Friday to watch a DVD on four umpire mechanics and facilitate any discussion. I secured a room with the front desk after the party on Thursday night and left a note for Lidia, one of our main tournament staffers, asking her to make sure everyone was informed about it. I left a morning wake-up call for 7:00 AM, with the meeting to start at 8:30 AM.

The call came in as expected. I was still trying to shake off the fatigue of the long trip over here and woke up feeling extremely tired. I remember telling myself to get up; that if I didn't, I would fall back asleep and would never wake up on my own again before the meeting. Apparently my body said "No way, I'm getting a few more REMs before getting up for the day." MISTAKE. The next call I got was from Dick, asking if I was planning on coming down. I didn't even know he was planning on coming over to our hotel for the meeting. Fortunately, he had several things he wanted to talk to the group about and stalled until I got downstairs and set up the DVD. (The DVD itself is one that was created by MLB and is a great way to go over coverage of the different systems. It gives you visuals to go along with bullet points for each situation, making it much easier to follow than the usual PowerPoint style presentation that is text-only. Hopefully the NCAA will incorporate this type of tool in the future.)

I had the plate for the Spain vs Chinese Taipei game in the evening at Intercon Stadium. We didn't start until 7:10 PM due to opening ceremonies. The local crowd, while not as large as I would have expected for a game involving the home country's team, was as vocal as I remembered last November. Weather was perfect for me; cool enough for the base guys to wear jackets and to keep me from becoming a drowned rat. My partners for the game were Dale Hackett from Canada at first, Arnold from the Netherlands at second, and Jose Perez Julian from Cuba at third. With three of the four of us speaking English, we had no trouble communicating on the field.

Each team scored a pair of runs in the first inning and everything got off to a good start. Chinese Taipei then started piling on some runs. The Spain pitcher (and subsequent pitchers) began looking in on pitches that were around, but off of, the plate. Apparently they were used to getting them called strikes, even though the catcher was pulling most of them back into the strike zone. There was one instance where a decision pitch was called a ball, and the next pitch was hit for a run scoring double. The first baseman became vocal with me at the conclusion of the play and had to be addressed. (Either he realized that this was not the way to interact with a plate umpire when you were expecting to bat three more times that night or was informed so in the dugout, because he made sure to apologize just prior to his next at-bat.)

The feeling on the field throughout seemed to be that the teams were expecting a few more strikes. In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a few more (and will attempt to do so in my next plate job). The difficulty comes in developing a strike zone that will hold up to the scrutiny of ESPN and then working in situations where the games aren't televised to that degree and with teams who don't normally get that kind of media coverage. They are in all probability used to a larger number of questionable pitches being called strikes.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the 7th inning. First, the Spain manager came out to the mound and barked at me about two pitches on his way out. I met him at the mound and we got that addressed. Secondly, Chinese Taipei was leading 12-3, and a ten run mercy rule is in effect throughout the tournament after seven innings. This brings about an interesting philosophical discussion regarding baseball etiquette. Under normal circumstances, it is considered "piling on" if teams aggressively work for more runs (bunting, stealing, etc.) with a big lead. However, the chance to save two innings of a pitcher's arm with a berth in the Olympic Games at stake changes the thinking of the team ahead. This happened in the 7th inning. A Chinese Taipei runner stole second base. The next pitch was slightly inside and under the hands of the hitter (although I think the catcher wanted the batter hit). The catcher went to the mound, glaring at the CT dugout and then exchanging words with them. We were able to put a stop to that. Eventually the bases were loaded and the batter hit a sacrifice fly that ended the game. As the team started celebrating on the field, more words were exchanged with the Spain dugout. The whole crew had to work to keep the teams separated before we were finally able leave for the locker room. International baseball at its best.

In any case, my crewmates and Dick were very supportive in the locker room. Although I did not consider the game my best work, I felt I was consistent throughout in the pitches I was giving (and not giving) to both teams. I think if I make a slight adjustment to the width and bottom of the zone I'll be all set for my next outing. We came back to the hotel and I sat and talked to Dale and his wife in the hotel lounge, along with Moira and Jenny (scorers for the tournament from South Africa and Australia). When that broke up, I went to see if Queenie, our favorite bartender at Frog during the World Cup, was working. I was told she no longer tended bar there. Since I was alone anyway, I decided to return to the hotel. The last few days finally caught up with me and I fell into bed exhausted. After watching the last two innings of my game on tape delay and the latest episode of Survivor that I downloaded from the internet on my computer (I am, after all, a TV junkie) I fell asleep and slept soundly until 10:00 AM.

That should bring everything up to date. I've got the late game between my good friends from Spain and Germany. I'm working second base and will be the only English-speaking member of the crew. We'll see tomorrow if I managed to stay out of trouble.