Day 3: Germany vs Spain

Our game on Day 4 was at Douliou Stadium, which is a little more than an hour drive from the hotel in Taichung. Because of this, we have to leave at 3:30 PM when going to that stadium, just to make sure there are no issues with traffic, etc. The trip was uneventful and we made it about an hour and a half before game time. Our crew for the game was Liang-Kuei Hsieh on the plate, Jose Perez from Cuba at first, me at second, and Fan-Chung Huang at third. Jose and I went out to check out the ground rules and found a very spacious, clean park. The stadium had just been full hours before, as Chinese Taipei played in the afternoon game, and since it was Saturday, the people were out in droves. The game recap said it was a sellout, and the stadium holds 15,000. Not so for our game. You could have actually counted the people by hand if you were bored enough.

We began with a good pace and stayed on it for most of the game. Spain hit the first Germany batter, but he was promptly thrown out stealing on the next pitch. Although both teams had some good scoring chances, the only run of the game was a solo home run by Germany in the top of the 8th inning. I did have a balk call for no step on the right-handed pitcher from Spain. He just spun around in the same spot. It's amazing to me how such a basic call can still generate such a response from the players and managers. They look at you like you've grown a second head, or as the Ohio State fans said to Mike Conlin once, like "you're seeing the game for the first time." After giving an explanation of the balk to the Spain manager, I turned to go back to my position. When I turned around, the manager was at the mound talking to his pitcher. I waited for Hsieh to write this down as a trip, but he didn't. I didn't want to come in at the conclusion of the half-inning after calling the balk, thinking that might draw a shot from the dugout. I waited until the next opportunity and went in to make sure Hsieh marked it down as a trip. (Unlike major league baseball, this was actually important even though the inning was over, because international baseball allows three free visits to the mound throughout the first nine innings. Had the game been played with the MLB trip rule, it would have been a moot point once the half-inning was over.)

One other interesting thing happened in the game. My plate umpire stopped the game at one point and was gesturing to the centerfield stands. There were only two people out there. One was the television camera guy, and the other one was someone taking photographs. Apparently this second person was in the batter's line of sight when pitches came in, so he was asked to move. One wonders what we would have done in this situation if we'd have had the first game's crowd, when those centerfield bleachers would have undoubtedly been full.

I thought Hsieh did a very good job on balls and strikes. He had several called third strikes and ran the game well. We had some communication issues on balls hit to the outfield, but you might expect that with people on the bases speaking three different languages. Also, I'm not sure our third base umpire gets that much opportunity to work in a four-man crew.

The trip back to Taichung was uneventful. A number of umpires and scorers who had worked the late game were having the meal dubbed "midnight snack" in the front lounge of the hotel. This is not really a snack at all, but a full fledged meal. We get breakfast every day, and then can choose between lunch/tea time and dinner/midnight snack for our other two meals of the day, depending on what time our game is being played. The food is always excellent in the hotel. I had a dish that was recommended by one of the front desk staffers that had a big bowl of noodles, to which you could add some spicy side ingredients. Along with that was a bowl of very tender beef, a salad, and dessert. It more than lived up to its billing. One of the other Taiwanese umpires (Wen-Ching Liao) was walking around with a bottle of Tequila, and I had a couple of glasses.

I sat and talked with the Hackett's, Jose, Jenny, Moira and Lidia and Lili (the two main staffers in charge of taking care of the umpires). They do a great job, and I was asking about their backgrounds. They both speak at least three languages and are currently going to school. I'm sure they will have no trouble getting jobs anywhere in the world with their experiences and multiple language sets.

I headed up to the room about 12:30 AM and realized that I was exhausted. I put the audiobook I am listening to (Stephen King's Duma Key) on a half-hour timer and probably fell asleep 10 minutes in. At least my sleep pattern is starting to stabilize a little bit.