A lot of my peers have gotten into slow pitch softball recently. I guess it’s just something that begins to happen in your 20s when your playing days are over. Many of us played baseball and we want to enjoy ourselves a few times a week and be part of a team. I get it. It’s fun sometimes. But is it challenging enough to be thrilling? I don’t know about that. And then you get into the whole issue of how seriously you should take things. Do you keep track of stats? Post batting averages and slugging percentages online for the whole league to see? Or do you set up some Natty Light at second base and do keg stands after doubles? It all depends on your mentality, and let’s just say one member of the LBS community belongs to the first group.
That’s right, none other than LBS lead writer Del, who does fantastic work here on a daily basis, got run from his slow pitch softball game on Thursday night. As Del describes it, he walked into the game all heated up after debating on the LBS Facebook group (join if you haven’t yet!) all day, and he unloaded on an umpire. Actually, it sounds like the umps had a quick hook more than anything else.
Del was playing shortstop when a few pitches landed in a questionable part of the strike zone. Now don’t ask me why the hitters weren’t all swinging away, but they weren’t. I’ll let Del take it from here:
“I’m at shortstop and a pitch that was blatantly being called a strike for the other team like four or five times gets thrown twice from our guy and gets called a ball.
So I go “HOW?” after the ump says “Ball 2.”
And the FIELD ump flips out and says “that’s you first and only warning! No arguing balls and strikes!”
So I say “okay, apparently this is the MLB,” and he gives me the boot.
No swearing, nothing.
Del added that he told the ump he had never seen a bigger power trip in his life and that the ump told him he had one minute to get off the field. At that point, Del responded by saying “I wouldn’t be able to get out of this park in under a minute if I was in the best shape of my f***in life.”
Alright, so Del certainly is an outspoken person as anyone can tell by reading his stuff, but this does sound like a power tripping umpire. But you know what? This would all be solved easily if two things happened: one, the team at-bat actually swung the effing bat like they’re supposed to in slow pitch softball. It’s not like we’re talking the ninth inning of a tie game and you need a lead off runner so you should work the count — this is freaking home run derby. Two, if Del weren’t all fired up, nothing probably would have happened. Then again, if Del doesn’t say anything, his team continues to get screwed.
All I know is that if Del was going to get the heave ho, he should have at least gone Lou Piniella and thrown his hat, kicked dirt on the ump’s shoes, and gotten in his face. What’s the point of getting tossed if you don’t at least get your money’s worth?
