THROWN AWAY GROUNDED OUT

I got assigned the varsity home opener at a high school’s new baseball diamond. There was much fanfare. Big crowds. Pregame speeches. They brought out a prominent community member to throw the ceremonial opening pitch. After he ambled to the mound, one problem quickly became apparent. No one had a ball. “Here,” I said, tossing one from my ball bag. I had wanted my throw from near the dugout to land short and allow the ball to gently roll to the mound. To my horror, the ball fired straight toward the head of the octogenarian celebrity, who was holding up a glove near his head but in no way seemed prepared to use it. In slow motion, I watched the impending disaster unfold. There was no time to shout a warning and it wouldn’t have done any good anyway. My throw was going to ruin the day’s ceremonies. Then, to my amazement and immense relief, my errant throw landed perfectly in his glove. The crowd cheered. The opening pitch was thrown. Calamity avoided by mere inches. And it reinforced that I should always hand the ball to the catcher!

— Brent Killackey, managing editor

I was working a high school girls’ softball playoff game as the U1. I had a ball hit sharply to the right side of the infield. I usually look at the player playing second base and right field to determine if a possible play can be made at first base. In this particular case, I judged that neither would get to it. Wrong! As I started to do my buttonhook, thinking the ball would go to the outfield, I realized there was a great play being made on the edge of the outfield grass. Realizing I was moving right into the line of the throw, I put on the brakes and ducked, tried to reverse (I am 6-foot-2) and as I bent down I lost my footing and down I went — me in one direction, hat and indicator in another. The ball and the runner arrived at about the same time and I was in the dirt with no idea what to call. When the dust settled, I went to my two partners and we ruled the batter-runner out. So embarrassing. I took some ribbing in the parking lot from game administrators and fellow officials. All in good fun!

— Ralph Hunter