Day 4: Mexico vs Korea

I was scheduled for the night game at Douliou again on Sunday, so I had a leisurely breakfast and lunch and worked on the blog the remainder of the time. We had a brief meeting in the morning, where Runch went over some things he had observed the first few days of the tournament.

Things are starting to get a little intense, as some teams are seeing the handwriting on the wall after getting off to a slow start in the tournament. That was the case with Mexico in this game. Our crew for the game was Arnold (from the Netherlands) on the plate, me at first, Louie (Taiwan) and second and Shih (Taiwan) at third.

In the top of the first we had a rotation on an extra base hit that took me to the plate for a play where the runner was out pretty easily. As I returned to the outfield in rightfield (it was the third out of the inning) the Mexico manager (Jose Tolentino) came down to the end of the dugout and tried to get my attention. When I looked around, he asked me to watch for the catcher tagging the runner with one hand while the ball was in the other. I told him that didn't happen. He repeated that he'd just like me to "watch for it." Then, he said the Korea pitcher had been balking in the 1st inning. I asked him how. He said that he was transferring the ball from his glove to his throwing hand as he started to assume the set position and look in for the sign. I told him that was not a balk and I would not be calling it. I'm assuming this was some kind of attempt to work me for later, as he picked two things that didn't happen just to get an opportunity to engage me in conversation. I knew the Mexico manager looked familiar to me but I hadn't initially caught his name. After doing a bit of research, I realized who he was and that I had him as a player in the American Association when he was with Buffalo. He was always a very high energy, flashy player (I'm thinking of some other adjectives to describe him, but I'll let you do the math on that) and has not changed that philosophy as a manager.

There was one humorous moment in the game where the Korea pitcher wanted to exchange baseballs. Arnold complied, but the pitcher didn't like the next ball either. He tried to change up again, but Arnold refused. I don't think the pitcher had ever had this happen before. He tried unsuccessfully to change the baseball again, even calling Arnold out to the mound to look at the baseball. Arnold refused to cycle through all the balls in his bag and play finally continued.

The game sailed along pretty smoothly, with Korea scoring one run first; then Mexico tying the game up. In the bottom of the 6th, Korea had a runner on third and less than two outs. A ball was hit down the rightfield line, so I was out in coverage. After the catch, the throw came in to the plate but the runner beat the play. Mexico appealed the tag at third, but they had asked for time prior to doing so, and no signal was made by our third base umpire (appropriately). Once this was explained to them, they appealed again once the ball was put back in play. The runner was ruled safe and Tolentino came screaming out of the dugout. He didn't get far with our Taiwanese umpire, who to my knowledge doesn't speak a word of English or Spanish.

In the bottom of the 8th inning, Mexico brought in a new pitcher, who struggled finding the plate from the outset. The dugout started trying to pin his troubles on Arnold, who largely ignored their complaints. After a couple of walks and a couple of runs had scored, Tolentino went to the mound, obviously to engage Arnold in an argument over his strike zone. Arnold was listening to none of it, and when he came out to break up the conference, he beckoned the manager off the hill to get him back in the dugout. The manager wanted him to get all the way up on the mound so he could make a big show of questioning the balls and strikes. To Arnold's credit, he refused to give him what he wanted.

Later in the half-inning, a Mexico player started barking from the dugout as well, and pretty loudly. I turned and focused my attention on him. This brought forth the usual request to get my eyes back on the game, which I ignored. Eventually Tolentino came at me out of the dugout to make another big show for his team. He wanted to get ejected at that point, so he could deflect blame for their performance onto the umpiring crew. Under those circumstances, I thought it best to make him remain and watch the conclusion of the game. Korea ended up scoring four in the inning. Mexico went down easily in the 9th to make the final score 6-1, but not before Tolentino took a couple more cheap shots at Arnold.

We made the hour long trek back to Taichung, where the "night shift" umpires met in the lounge to eat and discuss the day. I had chicken and some red wine and good conversation, and was in bed and asleep by 1:00 AM. I get to make the trip back to Douliou on Monday for another game with Mexico, so things should be interesting.