John Miller, who is playing and coaching for the Brussels Kangaroos in the Belgian 2nd Division and is a reporter for a big American newspaper, is now also the Little League Commissioner for Belgium. He is also back chronicling the 2010 season in his “Old World Pastime” column on Mister-Baseball.com for a third straight year.
Armando Galarraga’s perfect* game was such a big story this week that teenage Belgian kids were asking each other if they had seen the stolen masterpiece. I watched the replays over and over again on Thursday morning, calling colleagues over to my desk to share the shock.
It was one of those baseball events, like Bill Buckner’s bootie or Jeter’s backhand flip, that can be easily replayed in a sentence, then parsed and analyzed like a biblical verse, full of meaning, under the knife of a couple of scholars.
From this end of the world, like many commentators, I was awed by Galarraga’s classy, peaceful reaction. Wow. I carried the scene over to Belgium. A pitcher gets within a play of perfect, and an umpire blows it. A hundred bucks says he and his team go crazy and curse the guy to hell.
Galarraga signed when he was 16 years old and spent nine years in the minors before getting a shot, so the guy knows something about the hard lesson of just doing your best and accepting your fate.
I umpired two of under-15 “cadets” games this morning, Brussels versus the Stars of Mortsel, an Antwerp suburb that has one of the better baseball traditions in the country. I blew one call, a tag play at third on a throw from the outfield. Ball beat runner. Third baseman swiped at the sliding runner. I was behind the third baseman and thought the glove clipped his hand. It didn’t take long, from the coach’s incredulous glare, to the reaction of the third baseman, to figure out I missed it.
The baserunner, it happened, was the pitcher. When he came out for his warm-up tosses, I asked him if the tag had missed him. “Yeah, but that’s ok, missed calls are part of the game,” he said in perfect English. That kid is due a lifetime of good baseball karma.
To hell with instant replay. It’d be stupid to change something so fundamental in the major leagues that lower levels couldn’t afford to implement. Umpires are too integral a part of the game’s flow and culture. I don’t want a computer not giving me the slider an inch off the plate if I set up there and the pitcher hits the spot.
Umpires also add to the life lessons that baseball imparts. The temptation to blame the ump is huge. I’ve done it myself hundreds of times. Earlier this year, I went a bit nuts at a senseless (in my view) balk call. I apologized after the game. The ump said he wasn’t worried, it was just “John being John.” Wow, I was not glad to hear that. At our level, it’s important to remind yourself that the umpire is probably a lot closer to major-league level than you’ll ever be.
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the umpiring in the Belgian second division this year. They call plenty of strikes, get 95% of the field calls right and remain impartial and aloof. Small strike zones slow down games and destroy pitchers.
Most Belgian umpires are enthusiastic and competent, and do their job well for not a lot of money and even less love. I salute them. They are more essential to the sport than I’ll ever be. Just don’t ever ruin my perfect game.
How is the umpiring in Europe? Call balls and strikes at oldworldpastime@gmail.com