Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 147 | Umpire Dale Scott Was Part of So Many Huge Moments

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Dale Scott was an MLB umpire for over 30 years. He joined the guys to talk about the time he ejected Billy Martin, the Luis Gonzalez walk-off, which guys had the nastiest stuff, as well as whether or not the Armando Galarragga call should be overturned! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to talking baseball. We have a very fun interview. We got an umpire onto the show. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to talking baseball. My name is Jimmy. I've got Jake. I've got Trevor.

Producer BBD is here. And we are excited to bring you this interview. You heard a couple days ago. We were talking about how, hey, let's get an umpire on here. well, we got an umpire on here. Dale Scott, um, for 30 years. We just finished chatting with him for like a full hour and we could have went way longer. I loved all the stories he had and his perspective on things.

Travis, is that what you expected from getting an umpire on the show? It was. And I think it's cool that he came on and just showed a little bit of the personality and more so kind of like the mindset that, you know, most of these guys have. and it's like they just want to get the calls right and have nobody talk about them, which I think has been a little bit detrimental

to the brand, if you will, because I think these guys do need to be showcased a little more. There's such an integral part of the game and we just don't ever talk to them or hear it from them or anything unless something major happens. So I think it's cool. Obviously he's not a current umpire,

but it's cool to hear those stories and his perspective. And I, man, I just encourage more, umpires to do that. I think it would help their case out a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Jake, you want to be well, I'll save it. I'll save it for after because I actually, I really liked one of Trevor's questions, which is the first time that's ever happened. So, um, no, I mean, Dale, Dale Scott is the man. I mean, that's, that's everything you want to hear from an umpire. Well, as you listen to this interview, make sure to try and find out which question of Trevor's you think Jake really liked. And we'll let

you know at the end. We are joined by a talking baseball first to finally bring a little bit of order to this show. Dale Scott, former umpire. Dale, how you doing, man? I am doing great. It's a groundhog day again, uh, Portland. We're all doing it, man. You, you, you, you know, it's not too bad.

I mean, a lot of people have it a lot worse than me, but, uh, it's like everybody, though, every, you know, we're just tired of it, man. It's just, it's, it's, it just, you know, I mean, it's, I, I hurt my shoulder. I'm actually able to go to physical therapy twice a week. And so, uh, uh, that's like my big social event of the week. You know, oh, yeah, I get to go to social, you know, physical therapy. Yeah. Well, you're in the right place because I, uh, my back's been jacked up.

I was just telling them, I went to the chiropractor for the first time yesterday and, like, saw, drove past some trees and stuff. I was like, this is awesome. This is great. It's the little things in life now, I guess. Yeah, it's true. It's true. We've had a lot of players on the show during quarantine,

and we, you know, a couple weeks ago to say, hey, let's get an umpire on here. We want to hear the other side of stories and, and hear your perspective because it doesn't get shared a ton. So we really appreciate you coming on. And, you know, just a quick look at your history as an umpire in Major League Baseball. You were, you know, front row seat for a lot of crazy and fun games.

Well, when you, you know, when you work 32 years in the big leagues, you're going to see a lot of stuff. And it, you know, it was a hell of a ride. I ended a couple years earlier than I wanted to with the concussion thing. But I'm doing fine, and I'm actually not regretting it all. I'm enjoying retirement. It's been, you know, it was a great career and a lot of stories. And I'm sure Trevor has a few, but it's weird. But, you know, all those strikes I called you.

You know, it's just nothing personal. I know. I have them all listed out here. I want to go over each and every one with you. At bat by at bat. I'm sure I got a couple of them right. I'm just saying. 32 years is insane.

When I think about, you know, doing the baseball life, which you guys, you know, it's not too dissimilar from what we're doing. You know, when we're playing, it's a lot of travel. You have to field for a long time. It's a lot of stress every single day. and to do that 32 years, I mean, that's quite the accomplishment. Well, thanks. Yeah, I was fortunate.

I was healthy. I mean, a lot of guys have knee problems, back problems, necks, whatever, hips, you know, just the type of job we do. You know, quick starts or quick, you know, stop and start, stop and start running around. Just the, Trevor, as you know, the travel that we have. You know, at least a team was home up 81 days. And for example, I live in Portland, and my nearest city, obviously, is Seattle, 180 miles away. When we combined leagues in 2000, I came up in the American League. When I was just in the American League, of course, I got to Seattle a lot more because you had less teams, less cities to go to.

When we combined, it would not be unusual to, you know, even though I'm 180 miles from Seattle, all that's kind of my home, quote unquote, city, I might get there six games, maybe nine, you know, maybe two or three series the entire year. And so it just shows you that even if you live, even if I lived in one of the big league cities, you're just not there that much. And for obvious reasons, teams don't want to see us all the time. They don't want to see teams all the time. You don't want to be a homer or that kind of thing.

So it's necessary. But it's just, I always tell people it's like a. second job was the travel. Just, you know, and, you know, we didn't have charters and stuff a lot of times after a night game. We had to go first thing in the morning instead of being able to get out of town that night. And, you know, even though you're getting into a city early in the morning, you could crash and, you know, sleep all day or whatever you got to do. But listen, I'm not complaining. It was announced, you know, I had a heck of a run and a great career and I'm happy about it. But yeah, getting back to what you're saying, I've seen some really weird stuff.

how did it how did it start like how does uh how does becoming a major league umpire like you know were you 15 and and you started umping local games you know like a lot of 15 year old boys do like i umpired i don't know if trev did is that the start and then you're like hey i like this or well the the star way i grew up in eugene oregon and um it was obvious i was going to be first baseman for the Dodgers. I mean, that's just obvious. That was what was going to happen. But as I, as I, you know, grew up getting a little bit older, I figured out I couldn't, you know, run, hit, field, or throw. And so those are kind of major things. You know, I found out that's a real detriment to be in first baseman for anybody. So, yeah, I started up here when I was 15. And it was

more of a thing that I loved baseball growing up. This is my favorite sport. It was rather obvious. I didn't have the talent. And a friend of mine that was about a year older, he said, hey, I umpired last summer. Check it out. It's a good way to stay involved in the game when you're, you know, 15 years old. And, uh, and, uh, and of course, you know, I watched the umpires a lot because I was on the bench a lot. I had a lot of time to do that. Uh, so, um, so I thought, you know, that sounds kind of fun. And so I started doing that when I was 15. And, and I loved it. It just, it kept me involved in the game. But, you know, there's something about officiating in general, because I did basketball and football also at a high school level for like 18 years each. But I, every time you walk

on the field, you know, Trevor knows that you have, you have no idea what's going to happen that day. I mean, you could have a perfect game. You could have a 22 to 21 marathon. You could have a 15-inning marathon. I mean, you never know what's going to happen, even though it's the game of baseball and you're playing it every day. You really have no. So as an official, you walk after you have, you have no clue. You have no clue what you're going to see that day, what you're going to have to deal with that day. Some days just are smooth and everybody's happy and it's all unicorns and we just walk away other days from pitch one. We have discussion.

So, you know, it's just one of those things that I really, I just really enjoyed. So that started when I was 15. When I was 21, I went to Empire School and I was in the big league spy when I was 26. Wow. Yeah, that's young. Is that young for that? That's pretty young. Yeah, I was lucky.

I was 21 when I went to an umpire school. I only spent five years in the minor leagues. And that's a quick shot through the minors. Umpires can't skip a league or a level, I should say. So you can't go from A ball to AAA or double A to the big league, something like that. So you have to be at every level. I worked two years in the winter ball in the Dominican, which was very educated. on many levels.

And, yeah, so I was lucky. I got through the minor league pretty quickly, and I was 26 when I was hired by the American League. I turned 27 that August during that season. Did you ever have a moment when you were young? Because I know me and Jimmy have talked about this a lot, because it was kind of exactly what you said is exactly what we did. We played some baseball.

We weren't good at it. And the first job I thought about doing was like, Oh, umpire. It's on the baseball field. You know, I think it was $25 a game. I got Swedish fish and a hot dog if I called the game. It was my dream position. I remember, and I believe Jimmy had a very similar experience that we tapped out pretty quickly because, I mean, there's pressure on you. I mean, you've got parents that every parent is assuming that their kid will be that first basement for the Dodgers.

That I remember, and I'm a wishy-washy dude that I, I was, I think I did it for a season and I was like, umpiring is not for me. Did you ever have one of those moments? Or did you kind of just drink it in the whole time and you were like, I, I like this. Well, yeah, you, hell, I had some of those moments my last year. It depends who the manager was. Yeah, exactly. You know, 100 degrees day game in St. Louis or something. But, you know, obviously there's times that, you know, throughout my career, even before I got into professional baseball, I thought, what am I doing here? You know, why am I out here?

But I really enjoy, you know, it's like anything. Being an umpire is not for everybody. It's a, it's a, it's a, you have to have a pretty short memory as far as, you know, not only with dealings with players and managers and that or even, you know, fans and media as far as that goes at times. But you have to have a short memory with yourself. I mean, if I miss a call, you know, before replay, we didn't have a chance to correct these calls. If I miss a call, I can't sit there and think about and stew about that call.

I got a bunch of other calls coming up, you know. And I always say it like a, like a player, you know, if a basis loaded one out in the ninth inning, a shortstop ground ball, the shortstop, the shortstop, perfect double play ball and it goes through his legs. He never does that, right? But it does. And so he can't sit there and stew about.

about that play because guess what the next one might be coming right at him and i mean trevor knows this as well as anybody so it's a mental thing that you just have to have a short member you have to i will deal with whatever mistakes i made afterwards when i can watch the video and see what i did it wasn't my positioning was my timing was my you know this checklist of umpire things that we go through but but at the time you have to let that go because you got another one coming up and so it's a very mental game like with the players too i mean because you're out there you know they're playing a hundred in some games. I mean, you mentally, you have to check in every day.

It's crazy. Well, I was just going to say, sometimes that's easier said than done because, you know, you have life in general going on and you're on the road and, you know, somebody's sick at home or your hotel screwed up the reservation or you've got a mechanical on the, you know, I mean, life goes on. But when you walk on the field, no one really cares. It's time to get to work and turn that switch on. Yeah, you got to be, you got to stay checked in too. I remember watching, you know, a 16 inning game and thinking about the home plate umpire like

he hasn't sat he doesn't get to take a half inning off and go get drinks from the clubhouse or go into the you know go take a piss in the bathroom like like it was joe west i was like he's been standing for six hours locked in on 100 mile per hour 90 mile per hour pitches seeing if they go across i was like that's i wouldn't do that i wouldn't do that so i think you know it's very easy for casual fans to not understand that that that's like a hard job that's incredibly hard yeah honed in on that for that amount of time Well, in 1992 was my longest game behind the plate. It went six and a half hours, 19 innings. And it was actually Cleveland at the mistake by the lake. It was their home opener, April of 92, Boston was there. And I forget the player, he had a two-run home run in the top of the 19th to break the tie. And I know it was very unprofessional in my point, but I did high school because I was so happy.

I don't think Cleveland appreciated that. But, you know, I'm just saying. But, yeah, you know, after about probably the 13th inning or something, I was just numb. My legs were numb. I was almost robotic. I was just going down on each pitch, taking each pitch one at a time and just surviving. You know, it's really, you know, it's not.

I used a line in that game, guys, that I hoped I would never have to use again the rest of my career. And luckily, I didn't have to use it. Mark Whitten was a right fielder for Cleveland. I called him out on strikes in the bottom of the 17th to finish the 17th inning. And he started complaining. I said, Mark, that's been a strike for 17 Indians and it's still a strike. Now, I told myself, I hope to God I never have to say that ever again. Yeah.

You also, I mean, being an umpire, what scared me away was just like confrontation. I had a, I had a coach. I mean, I was 14-year-old years old, umping nine-year-olds, and they made this new rule that if a pitcher overthrew the pickoff, the runner couldn't score no matter how many errors were made after that. They just, it couldn't, it wasn't allowed to score from first on an error on a pickup. And, or no, if you stole second and the overthrow, you weren't allowed, know. And the coach came out and started screaming. I mean, I'm like, no, like, I just did a meeting

about this. It's a new rule they instilled. He ran to his car and grabbed the rulebook, started running back towards the field. I'm 14 years old. There's like crowds watching. He gets halfway throughout. He throws the rulebook on the ground, kicks it. And then he never came back to the field because he was so embarrassed. And I got an apology email the next day. And then like a thank you. And I was like, I'm done. Like, I didn't like that at all. Even though I was in the right. Like screw that. And the one story I want to talk about is you're, I think your second or third year,

so you're probably still young, 28 years old, Billy Martin gets in your face and actually throws dirt onto you. Yeah. That's incredible. That was Memorial Day. I was actually, that was the last time Billy Martin was ever rejected.

It was by me. It was Memorial Day, 1988 in Oakland. He was with the Yankees. This was obviously Memorial Day. It was Monday. It was Monday night baseball. ABC used to have Monday night baseball, just like they had Monday night football. And so it was a 5 o'clock start in Oakland.

And they, of course, you know, watered down the infield to keep the dust down or whatever. And so this was in the bottom of the third. Walt Weiss was the hitter for Oakland, very first hitter of the inning. He hit a line drive, low-line drive to Bobby Meacham at second base. I was the first base umpire. And there was a question if he short-harmes. hopped it or if he caught the ball. And Rick Reed was the umpire's second base.

And from my angle, it looked like he short hopped. It was very close. He could have gotten either way. Rick calls no catch. Meacham, you know, even if, even if we were wrong, if he just glanced up and saw no catch, he could throw a wice out by 30 feet. I mean, it's, there's really, you know, he's out easy. It's not going to be a close play at first.

But Meacham just, you know, soon he caught the ball and just started. have thrown around the horn. So, so, so why, you know, is it first? And here we go. And, and so they're, you know, yelling at Rick. And so here comes Billy out of the first base dugout. And he comes right by me. And he said, you saw him catch the ball. And I said, no, Billy, I got him trapping it. And so he runs off and he's talking with Rick. And Rich Garcia was the crew chief. He was at home played. And John Herschbeck was the third base. And, you know, this was my third year. I was, you know, 28. And, you know, Billy Martin, like a lot of you know, managers, they, they will have a tendency to pick on the younger guy on the crew

out of defense. And I used to hate that as a young guy. And as an older guy, I loved it. But, but, so, so they're arguing. And I kind of am just drifting over there. And so all of a sudden he turns to me and he said, you saw him catch them. I said, no, Billy, he trapped and he said, well, you're full of blankety, and he blanked and blank. And he said, and, And so I jacketed him. You know, he's he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he personalized it. And, uh, and I ran him. So he immediately started to try to kick some dirt on me.

And the, you know, this was, this was the bottom of the third. It had been a quick game up to that. And the, the, the dirt's still damp. And so he can't get a good kick going. He's got just kicking it. And he can't get some dirt going. So finally he just bends down and picks it up and just does a, a chest pass right into my, right right into my chest.

and and you know so that was that was and so my parents were in the stands they had come down we have some relatives in north of California so they had come to the game I got them tickets and a whole bit you know and you know my mom was horrified she was trying to figure out why they like didn't go into insurance or something and then but Martin was was suspended after that that game ended up going like 14 innings and apparently after he was ejected, Billy went back to the clubhouse. He had a couple adult beverages in there for a couple of innings. And then I guess one of the attendants said,

well, Billy, this should take you home because it was about the, you know, this game went on forever. Tommy John, it was a funny thing that the next day Tommy John comes into our locker room before the game. He was pitching for the Yankees. He wasn't pitching that day. But Tommy usually came by about once a series just to say hello and a real nice guy. and I'm sure probably looking for a few pitches.

Trevor is a hitter here nor there. Trevor is a hitter is going, well, he did what now? Hold on. Yeah. But he, he looked at me,

he goes, boy, you really pissed Billy off last time. Me, I didn't even my call, for God say. Yeah, he was suspended. He came back and managed

after the suspension for, I don't know, a few weeks, and then, and then Steinbrenner fired him, and he never managed to get after that. So I was the last umpire to reject Billy Martin. Did he ever reach out? Is there any conversations?

No, we saw, you know, there's a couple things happened from that that I didn't know about at the time. I saw him, uh, one, right, right before he got fired, I believe it was in Detroit. And, uh, and he didn't say a word to me that, you know, nothing really happened in that series. But later on, I don't remember how close it was after this Oakland incident in Oakland, but our crew was going to New York. And I got a call from the league offices. So, hey, Dale, we're going to switch some guys up.

And instead of going to New York with Garcia, we want you to go to, you know, Detroit or wherever the heck I was going, to switch with somebody else. I said, okay. And, you know, that happens. And I really didn't think much about it. Well, we found out later in the season. And, you know, you got to remember this 1988. This is no email and, you know, all this stuff.

Somebody actually wrote a letter to the American League office saying if Dale Scott ever comes to New York, he's leaving in a body back. Jeez. Because of, and I didn't know about this. The league got this letter. It was because I threw out Billy Martin. And so they had switched me from my next New York trip, unbeknownst to me, that's why they switched me. They told me later on that that was the that was the reason which you know I you'd take it with a grain of salt but it would still you know you think about it a little bit. I think it was Billy writing the letter with his left hand.

Well, very well could be that. That's crazy. Dale, I got a question for you. What do you got? So, you know, I played for a manager that loved the theatrics of arguing and getting thrown out in Ron Gardenhire. Yeah. You know, there were times where I'm sure you know, I mean, it was a premeditated thing, whether he wanted to get the crowd into it.

He wanted to pump our team up or if he was just frustrated and like you said, wanted to go out a few adult beverages. You know, there was a few times where I knew going out there, he knew he was going to go get ejected and it would always start out slowly and then he would pick up. How many times did you know a guy was coming out to get thrown out, to get wrong, and you just let them go on and go on and go on. Because I know there are times where umpires are like, I don't want to throw you out because that's what you want.

And then I got to go write some paperwork after this game. I don't want to do that. Like what's the line that a manager has to cross for you like, all right, fine, like get out of here. Well, you know, it's funny, Trevor, because you're absolutely right. Sometimes they're coming out. They are just really genuinely pissed off. There's other times they're coming out.

defending their player. They're just trying to get their player from being ejected or, you know, get him away. Sometimes they're coming out to fire up the team. They're just, they want to, you know, or the crowd just to get them, get things going. And other, you know, I mean, I've had some great argument. I have said in the past when a guy is, you know, if a guy wants to get run, he knows what he can say or do. I mean, if you, if you, the automatic stuff. And I've had a couple times a guy come out, you know, going round and round and really not saying the stuff to get run, but we're not going anywhere and finally I go, you know, do you want to get run?

Well, I don't know. What am I supposed to? I go, well, if I've got to stay here and watch this, you do too. You know, and I did. And we'll get a kind of kick out of that. I had a funny story. Terry Collins, when he was managing the Angels back in the 90s, we were in Anaheim, and I was at second base,

and Toronto was there. And after like three innings, Toronto's up 10, or excuse me, the angels are up like 10-0. So now we fast forward to about the seventh, and it's 10 to 9. So it's a fabulous game going on. And so I've got, there's nobody on, and I've got a call out in center field, spectator interference. Is it spectator interference or is it a home run, one of those things?

And of course, this is way before replay and all that stuff. So I called spectator interference. It was an angel player that hit it, and of course they wanted the home run. So here comes Terry running out. and and I'm you know I had gone out on the ball so I'm I'm out in center field so we kind of meet in shallow center and I'm you know it's 10 to 9 it's the seventh inning I'm thinking you know they had a 10 nothing he's he's going to be pissed he came out and I said Terry I said Terry Terry he reached below the fence line he goes I don't give a shit I don't care he said he said he said

we suck we have we have we have a 10 nothing lead and that was 10 nothing lead and that was to nine and we said and i'm i'm trying not to laugh now you know because i'm not expecting this and i had terry in winter ball in the dominican terry was a good guy i mean he got he was a fire guy and stuff but with with umpires you know i got along with him i've run him but i got around with him but uh so so he goes he goes i can't believe i can't believe how much we said and now it looks like he's chewing me a good one right um and and i said he goes he goes you know what you know what i'm sick of it i'm saying you got to run me you're going to have just run me and i said well i say well Terry, you know, you know, you're going to do something to get ready?

Oh, you want me to do something to get ready? And he grabs his hat and he throws his hat about 10 feet. And I said, okay, that'll do it. So I eject him to get. And he goes, he goes, I can't believe how we suck. And he's in, and he's just, the theatrics is great. And finally he goes, you know what? You know what really, really sucks is I get to leave.

And you have to sit here and watch this shit. And at a way, at a way he went. And I just went, you know, drawing up to laugh. And look. in Minnesota once. He was actually in Oakland, but he had the same type of thing where he, you know, but there's other times I've misjudged.

I thought a guy was maybe trying to fire the guys. No, no, no, he was really, really pissed. And so you've got to kind of judge that. You know, Gardenhauer, it's funny you should bring Ron up. You know, when he coached third base for a long time, the nicest guy would chat with you when you're third, you know, always say hello, you know, and actually his manager too. always said hello and he was always, you know, very personal, but I mean, it would go off in a heartbeat.

He would explode. And, you know, I've, I think I've ran Ron a couple times, you know, and the thing about I liked about him, at least with me for sure, he just, the next day was a new day. He didn't necessarily hold some big huge grudge or anything. You know, it was, it was over with. let's move on. It's another, it's another. You know, and one thing that we learned a doubleheader, and you had a big shit house first game, every game's a new game. And you have to bring that into that. Now, you know certain players may have, or managers may have kind of a rap sheet

because they get run a lot or they complain a lot. So you understand who you're dealing with. If you have a guy that hardly ever says a word and then he questions you on a pitch, you kind of go, huh, well, maybe I screwed that up. But when you have a guy that moans all the time, you take it with a grain of salt because it's like crying wolf after a while it's just like it doesn't really matter what I call you're not going to like it you know I got a few guys that I could think of that did that well Paul O'Neill was hilarious with the

Yankees I swear Paul he would always have something to say about a pitch I mean every game you could not you know escape without Paul having a discussion about at least one time I once gotten an argument with Paul he fouled it off and said was at a good pitch. I said, yes, he goes, no, it wasn't. I'm going, what, what am I supposed to do now? That's the Yankees, man. They're so entitled, those Yankees. Well, that's a whole other segment. But I remember we had a Saturday day game in Cleveland, and I had the plate with the Yankees there. And the next day, I'm at third base, Sunday afternoon, there was a pitching change. So there was a timeout on the field. And Paul is at third base.

I go, hey, Paul. And he looks back and he goes, hey, Dale. I go, hey, Paul, hell froze over. And he goes, what are you talking about? I said, I had the play yesterday. And you didn't complain about a pitch. I said, I think hell is frozen over. He said, yeah, yeah, you're right.

I think it has. That's funny. It's funny you talk about Gardenhauer, like at third base in him having to kind of be a good guy at that time. Because that's kind of what happens. you know, I'm talking to a home plate umpire and I have something to say to him, I know that the next day you were going to be right next to me at third base. So I had to watch myself.

I didn't want to piss any umpires off too badly because then I had to deal with you guys the next day. So I think that I never got wrong in the big leagues. And I think... You never got ejected. No. And I think that was a big reason why is I knew I had to, you know, talk to you guys. And the funny thing is, like, I'm so glad that you're on our show right now.

because people don't see, you know, don't get to see umpires personalities and don't understand, like, we're all on this together. We're all out here trying to, like, just produce a really well played and umpired baseball game. That's it. And sometimes shit happens. But, uh, you know, to understand, like, you guys are just trying to do your job the best you can, just like everybody else on the field, people need to see that more. And I'm glad that, like, like, you're here.

And I feel like, you know, the umpires as a union or, an organization might need to do that a little more, like present day empires. I think it will really do well for the brand. A little PR maybe a little more. Yeah. Or something like that. Yeah. You know, that's just exactly right too. I mean, we're all professionals out there. And you've got a job to do and the other team's got a job to do. And we've got a job to do. And sometimes in doing my job, it conflicts with your job. And it just happens the nature of the game. And, you know, a lot of people, people, you know, fans or whatever, that they just, they think that we're just out to get guys or out to get teams or something. And, and, and I know there are certain situations that do not

look good, you know, but, but I, you know, I never, you know, I never sit there and think, uh, uh, so-and-so, uh, really bitched at me on my last, on my last, uh, his last abat. So I'm just going to screw him next time you can't, I mean, you just, you just doesn't, you can't do that and especially especially now that technology and now I'm not saying I'm not saying back in the old days you know still

need the catcher hey good outside I'll teach this guy that you know but but this was back when we you know now every pitch we call every ball every strike is is scrutinized not only scrutinized but it's evaluated and you know if we miss X amount of pitches

or this or that and and and so it's just even though you may irritate the hell out of me with an argument or whatever. You don't have this mindset, well, I'm going to do it. You're just trying to do a job. I'm just trying to get pitches right. I'm trying to get plays right.

And most of the time I do. Sometimes I don't. And we need to all move on. It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, obviously if I, you know, I miss a strike three in the bottom of the second with nobody on and two outs. It's not nearly as big as I do that same thing in the bottom of the eighth with the tie and run at second or whatever.

I mean, it's a, it's a big deal then. So there's all, a lot of time. or situation calls that are sometimes and other times it's like you, you know, you, you,

you, you, you, you, you, you know, but, but, but,

but, but, but, we're, we're just, we're just trying to do our job just like you guys. And sometimes, sometimes,

uh, you know, we, we butt heads a little bit. I, I, I want to talk about the, the personalities a little bit,

just like you guys were saying. And it's kind of what we're trying to do here. I mean, baseball has these guys with personalities. I know we've been going back in memory lane to spring training like this year, and we've just been dreaming about it because it seems so long ago. But we walked around twin spring training. And I mean, you see Perp Lylevin and he's got a story for everything.

Dan Gladden, I mean, it was just good times. And I wanted to talk about that with you. Because like you said, I mean, I'm sure you get a lot of pitchers sucking up to you a little bit. You know, the smart hitters are probably sucking up a little bit. or like you mentioned with Paul O'Neill, you got those guys that are going to fight for every call. I want to talk about either you see it with the catchers a lot if you're calling a game from home plate, but third baseman and first baseman too, who are the guys that you were when you're out there that were playing, that you were like, man, I'm going to have some either great conversations at third base today or me and this catcher.

We talk about everything all day. We just have a good time back there. Who were your guys that when you went out there, you're like, these guys are the best? well you know I mean it's just like anything some guys are talkers and they that relaxes them or you know

or whatever it's same with umpires some are much more talkers than others I I wasn't a huge talker I didn't mind a you know a little running conversation here and there but I just I just that's not my makeup when I'm working like that but there are some guys

Bob Guerin when he caught um would not never shut up. I mean, he just I mean, to the hitter, to the bumpire, to the ballboy, somebody brings out water, we'll have to conversation. You know, I mean,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, one time, I worked with Rich Garcia several, several seasons, you know, early in my career, and you know, one time Garcia's worked in the plate and he finally, he, too, after the game, he told me, he goes, he goes, about the third inning, I said, but just shut the hell

up. I'm trying to work here. He said, you just, don't stop talking. But, you know, like at first and third, there was some guys that you could barely get a word out of them. And other guys, again, they just have a continual comedy. Casey, the Reds at first. I mean, the guy just talked and talked.

You know, he's still talking. Yeah, yeah, I think he is. But then you get somebody like, I'm trying to think, Paul, he was with the Diamondbacks, big. Goldsmith. Gold. Goldschmidt. I mean, if you, hey, Paul, you might, you might, you might, you, you might get a, and he's not like, he's a bad at first. He's just, he's just not a talk. He's at least, at least with us. He's not, you know, so, yeah, it's a game of personalities. You know, I, I, I can have on my crew, uh, somebody that, like, for example, a certain manager, manager, a guy in my crew loves, you know, they get along great and I can't, him and I are like oil and water, you know, and, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, or vice versa or or you know a guy that's a you know known to be a pretty jovial uh even tempered dude

but with one or two certain umpires they go that shit crazy you know they for whatever they knew them in the minor leagues or they had something that happened and and and there's there's that thing so it's like it's a it's a it's a game of personalities and then with umpires the thing is is i you know i might you know if trevers pissed off of me about something i might handle him completely different than somebody on my crew would handle him. handle him in the same situation. We both get the same results of, you know, we calm it down, but we do it maybe completely different ways. And that's because of our own personalities. And, and then, of course, whatever, you know, on-field relationships we have with a certain player.

So, you know, it's, there's no one's a correct answer on how to handle a situation or how to handle a certain player or manager, because there's several tools in the toolbox. Sometimes I use tools, and I will never use that tool again. That didn't work. That did not work at all. But you learn from that and you move on. Who's the guy that, you know, you have this awesome perspective that not many people get

when you're behind the dish and you're seeing these pitches come in. The best of the best, though, in the ball, you know, a zillion miles an hour. Who's the guy that you're like, you remember, you think back, that guy had the best stuff I ever saw? Well, Mariano.

would come in the ninth inning. And he, you know, his, his ball moved. I mean, it was right-handed hitter. That ball was inside, inside his. And he just come, you know, hit that inside. I mean, he, he was remarkable, some of the, just some of the location and skill that he had. I'll tell you, I worked behind the plate two no hitters in my career. and one of them, the winter after that season,

they said it wasn't a no-hitter because he only pitched eight innings. It was a lot. Andy Hawkins for the Yankees threw eight in Chicago, Comiskey Park the last year of Comiskey, and lost to the White Sox. The White Sox scored 200 runs, two or three-hundred runs at the bottom of the eighth. Hawkins, you know, the Yankees came up the ninth. They didn't score.

Game was over. So Hawkins had a no-hit loss. but they said after that you have to you have to pitch nine and he's the only pitched eight the other one that is still on the books uh is scott ericson of the twins the he no hit uh milwaukee in the metrodome uh in 94 but the the the you know and i saw some unbelievable pitchers but the the nastiest stuff i ever saw ended up not being a no hitter but it was randy johnson with the mariners oh yeah uh in oakland he had a perfect game into the ninth inning he lost on a three two pitch that thank God was not close.

And then in the ninth inning, in the bottom of the ninth, he gave up a single to Lance Blankenship, a infielder for the A's. And it was, it certainly wasn't a rope. But he got over the heads of the head of the second basement for a base hit. But that was, that was the ninth inning. But this guy was on hit about, I mean, the hitter. that game going up to that point we're walking away, just shaking their head.

I mean, they, they just, he was, he was filthy, and you know, and Randy could be pretty tough anyway, but that day he was like, you know, wow. You see, you know, I remember seeing certain catchers, you know, Padre Rodriguez

is one of, I mean, that guy, he came up with the Yankees said he would throw to any base at any time. It didn't matter. This game situation didn't matter any. anything. He was fearless at throwing and trying to pick a runner off and was very successful a lot of times. He was amazing how good he was when he first came up. And when you were on the basis, a lot of times, you know, I had third base and I think I got pudge. If I got a runner a third, you got to be ready. I mean, you got to be ready every, you know, because he will whip that

that thing down there and you got to be in position. So, I mean, so yeah, I saw a ton of talented guys both, you know, offensively and defensively throughout my career. I've worked a bunch of Hall of Fame pitchers. And I mean, the nastiest, I think I ever saw Nolan Ryan. And I had, I worked Nolan. Oh, gosh, I probably worked behind the plane maybe, I don't know, 10 times. I don't know, many times. But before I retired.

But he, one of the best pitching performers ever saw him do, it was in a Baltimore where his his his his fastball was was commanding stuff but he he he was his his change up and his all his off speed stuff was working so guys were up there going I don't know what's coming you know and they never and and they were just that he had he had the timing of those hitters off so much that game because he because everything was working everything was it and and and you know a pitcher doesn't and Trevor you know he doesn't have to necessarily have to have power he has to have you know location hit his spots, you know, change up the timing, and he can be, you know, masterful out there.

So it's just, it's a baseball's telling you guys nothing that you already don't already know. But baseball is an amazing game because you can, you can go out and be three for four, four, four for four on top of the world. Next day, it looks like you've never had a bat in your hand, you know. Oh, yeah. You know, it's so humbling. And it's the same way with umpires. I, you know, I've gone out and I've had, I've had, you know, two,

three or four play jobs a row. I mean, I just nail it. I was seeing the ball look like a beach ball. I was just, I was, things were working. And all of a sudden, you go out there one day and you're doing the same thing and it,

the ball is a golf ball. You know, you're not picking it up in the background or something. And all of a sudden you're going, it's like, what happened? I'm doing the same thing. You know,

I thought I was doing the same thing. I've been there. Yeah. Yeah. You got to, I mean, we're talking about all the players, but you also got to dump a lot of like big games.

You have three. three World Series and I think three All-Star games. I want to ask about some of them, but first, how does that selection process work for those that don't know? And how do you find out, like, you got an All-Star game? How late until you do find out? Well, the process is easy. They just have a dartboard and they throw it.

It lands. All-Star game, we usually find out that's July. We'll probably find out about the first of June. So you got a little bit of a leeway on that. The playoffs, you don't fight out until the Saturday, the second to last Saturday of the season. So the weekend before the last weekend is when they will announce the wild card and divisional series umpire crews.

The Saturday of the end of the season, the last weekend of the season, they'll announce the league championship cruise. and then when all the division series are over, out of that pool of 24 guys that worked in the division series, seven of them will be working the World Series, but they don't announce that until after every division series is over. So basically, you have about a 10, for the playoffs like that,

you have about a 10-day, give or take, before the event starts. So not a lot of time. It didn't used to be that way. That started in the 2000 contract. I remember my first World Series was in 1998. And back then, by contract, by our contract, we had to have all our postseason. Of course, well, all of postseason had to be announced by September 10th.

So I was in Toronto and I got a phone call and it was September 10th. And it said, hey, congratulate. It was my first World Series. you're working the World Series. Of course, you have no idea who's going to be in it or any of that stuff. And I was thrilled and excited and all that. The next day, I went out and worked the plate, and I ran three guys. I ran both managers.

I ran both managers and a pitcher off the mound. And it was, you know, a fun day. And so, so, Marty Springs, the director of Vampire. for American League. And he called me the next day. He goes, and I don't know if, Trevor, I don't know if you ever met Marty, but Marty was a great guy. He kind of talked like this.

And he said, Scottie, Marty Springstead. He goes, I said you got the World Series. Are you okay? It was like, you get the best news that you can get that you've been assigned your first World Series and the next year run three guys. What the hell is wrong with me? But, yeah, so you have about a 10-day window on the play. playoffs, the All-Star game, you have it about, usually about 30 days.

I want to talk about the 2001 World Series. I mean, it's after 9-11, the Yankees and Diamondbacks, and Bush is thrown out the first pitch, which there's so much, there's been so much retelling of that story and a secret serviceman dressed as an umpire, I believe. What was, what was that whole environment and that series like? Well, I tell you what, that was, that whole thing was incredible. And, you know, game three, the first game in Yankee Stadium, the president was coming. I had to play that game.

That was my play game. So lucky me. Because, you know, in the postseason, it's hilarious. These locker rooms suddenly have all these people in it that you don't even know who they are. I mean, these are front office people from MLB. There's the television people. There's security people. It's like, who are all these people, you know, that show up?

And so you have a lot of kind of just distractions that you don't normally have in your in your normal routine. Plus, oh, by the way, you're getting ready to umpire, you know, behind the plate in a in a World Series game at Yankee Stadium. So, hey, stay hot. So you have all this going on. Well, now add to that, we're at the president. Jimmy Joyce and I were on the crew that year and we got at the stadium really early because we knew of security and everything. and to show you how insane security was there right after 9-11, at old Yankee Stadium, we used to walk into the Prescate.

There would be a guard there. We'd go down these stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, it would be a guard. It'd be a long hallway, and then another long hallway. There's a guard there. Then you walk right by the Yankee Clubhouse, and then just a little bit farther is our clubhouse, and there's a guard there. On that, not that day, but all three,

games at Yankee Stadium for that World Series. There was a guard at the press gate. There was a guard at the bottom of the stairs. The long hallway, there was a guard about every 15 feet. The other long hallway, there's another guard, you know, stationed about every 15 feet. In front of the Yankee clubhouse, there was a Italian. And then, and then in front of our

room was a couple guards. It was just the security was insane. We walk in and there's a There's a gentleman sitting there and we have no idea who he is and our clubhouse guy. And the gentleman goes, hi, I'm so-and-so Secret Service. He goes, I'll be going on the field with you guys in an umpire uniform. And we said, oh, okay. And this guy, so we saw this guy dress. I said, well, you must have seen our work then.

We have to have security come out with it. But no, but he had a, he had a bulletproof vest. he had this all underneath the Mark Hursbeck was on the crew and Mark was the guy that stayed in the tunnel so only six of us would walk out as umpires and the Secret Service guy was during one of his pull over

but he had a he had a bulletproof vest he had a gun underneath that he had a sidearm he had he had cuffs he had a I mean he had the earpiece I mean this guy was wired once wired up and yeah it's exactly what they did That's crazy.

They had a fake umpire, secret service guy. They had two secret service guys in Yankee groundskeeper uniforms that were on the field. Wow. The president went to the mound with, you know, he had the coat over. He had a bulletproof vest on. And, of course, you know, this whole time is hours, like three and a half hours before game time. Everyone, you know, other guys were coming in and we're all there. And the Secret Service guy, he had the earpiece, and he'd go, oh, the president has just left Washington, D.C.

He said, oh, okay, cool. And we didn't know if he was going to stop by our room or not. The first pitch was approximately 820, 825, something like that. And then about 740 or so, he goes, the president will be here at 7.58. We said, okay. You know, and so it's a funny story if you have time. The Yankee Stadium Clubhouse, our Clubhouse, there's just one door to walk in. It was a rectangular room with our lockers and stuff right across the opposite of the room you let you walk in.

There's an opening. You go through there, the showers to the right, the bathrooms of the left. So, you know, we're all in there getting ready. I go in to, you know, use the facilities. And all of a sudden I heard kind of a commotion. going on. I go, he must have arrived. And when he gets there, of course, he has his whole contingent of Secret Service. And when they walk in, one of the guys immediately goes just to the opposite side to that doorway, just to see what's there, you know. And so I've got my back

to him and so I'm standing out of urine all doing my thing. And he goes, you have a visitor. And I look back and I said, oh, yeah, I'll be right there. Just kind of standing here, you know. And, you know, wash my hands and stuff. I come out. So I'm the last guy to meet the president's because he's come by and he said hello to everybody. Now, George W. Bush,

I knew before he was governor. He sat right by the Ranger dugout, the Rangers right by the ballboy. I remember going over like between innings when it was a million degrees in New, in Arlington. And the ball boy was out doing something and I would just grab a couple of balls in between innings. I'm sweating.

And he go, uh, hey, uh, looks like you're sweating. Yes, it is Texas in July. But anyway, you know, nice guy.

So I come out and I'm, you know, drying my hands, make sure everybody knows I'm drying my hand. And I said, Mr. President, Dale Scott, he goes, Dale, yes, he goes, I remember you. You're the guy that sweats all the time. Wow. I said, yes, sir, that is me. That's funny. Yeah. So, yeah, there was all kinds of security that game.

And that series was unbelievable. I think it might have been the only time ever that non-Yanky fans were kind of Yankee fans, you know, for that, for that World Series, just because of the situation. Yeah. I mean, that's wild. And then you're the 98 when 2004 as well. Those weren't as exciting as the 2001 World Series. But that was a front-less.

Yeah, yeah. That was a seven game and with the situation, everything. I had a four-game sweep in 98. in the four-game sweep in 2004. And that was, of course, the Red Sox after beating the Yankees four in a row and then went in and swept the Cardinals to end the curse. So that was kind of a big deal. The final game, though, was in St. Louis.

If it had been in Boston, I'm sure of have been quite insane. But, you know, two sweeps and a seven-gamer, and that was my World Series, you know, experience. that's no we we i like asking uh when we when we talk to some of the players it's kind of the the when does it sink in moment the the you know you we've talked to brian dozier from the nationals and from this year and it's you know when when when does it come through your head like wow we just won the world series in seven games like all the road games so many special moments in this sport you guys again it it's it's a really interesting perspective because that

2001 world series. I mean, you watch the Arizona Diamondbacks walk off on Mariana Rivera in game seven. Do you guys go back to the umpire room and are you guys all just looking at each other? Like that's incredible? Like when's that like kind of moment for you guys where it's like, damn, that's awesome. Well, you know, it's for us, at least certainly for me, it's awesome when it's over and you survived it without any controversy. That's what it's awesome. Because you, you, obviously you understand what's happening. You are thrilled and humbled to have been chosen to work session event. And, you know, people say, did you have fun?

Well, you had fun, but part of that fun was the fact that you didn't screw something up really bad. I mean, because you look at 85 and Don Dankinger. You know, Don insanely. I mean, the man was an outstanding umpire. an unbelievable career and that's really all they think about when you hear of Don Dangar is that one play that he missed in the World Series. And it was, you know, that's, that's just, that's, that's part of this job is sometimes you're in a situation and it just happens and you just have to, you just got to deal with it. But yeah, there's,

when that particular game, I mean, let's face it, the Yankees go up, Rivera comes in, there's no way Arizona's going to win this game. I mean, you know, by the stats, Mariano just doesn't give up, you know, doesn't blow saves. I mean, it just doesn't happen. And as it turns out, boom, boom, boom. And it's over. In fact, the game winning hit,

which is just over drawn in infield, I'm in that highlight every time because I'm the second base umpire. That's not. They're going to show that forever. That's amazing. Show that forever, yeah. I'm just glad I didn't call infield fly, but I'm just saying.

I wish you did. We are Yankee fan. We wish you did. You talked about one moment kind of defining people's careers. Obviously, it goes both ways. Billy Buckner had his, you know, excellent career defined by an error, which is ridiculous. This has been in the news recently with Armando Galleraga and his perfect game, who the empire who missed the call was Jim Joyce, who if anybody followed baseball or, you know,

if you played, you know Jim is a phenomenal umpire. and had the respect of everybody in the game and it's just a call that he missed and now this is coming back and they're saying or at least Armando saying I'd really like to be recognized for a perfect game financially for him I think it hurt him because

you know you could play that into some endorsement deals whatever whatever how do you because I haven't even had time to formulate an opinion on this but I'm going to put you on the spot here how do you feel about that do you think it would be right for MLB to retroactively go back and say yeah that was a perfect

game. Well, I think that's a real slippery slope if they do that. Now, this is a situation, you know, this is an umpire nightmare. I mean, you can't, you cannot come up with it. I mean, you know, we've all blown calls, especially calls, maybe in big situations. This is a script that a producer in Hollywood would say that can't happen. That would never happen. I mean, 26 outs, the 27th out, the pitcher are covering, and he missed it, you know, and, and, and, And that night I happened to be in Seattle. So I was a couple or three hours, you know, behind. And so I was just getting to the ballpark in Seattle, literally walking in the concourse going to our room.

And I went by, I always walked by the Mariner Clubhouse and the guard that's out there. He has a TV there. And as I'm walking by, I see there's something happening. But I'm not really sure, you know, what the whole thing is. But I could tell. There's shots of Jimmy. And I thought, okay, this isn't good. And he's having to show it.

that's probably not good. So I get into our locker and immediately turn it on and I see what happened. And I'm just, I felt so bad. You know, Jimmy, he lives eight miles from me here in Portland in Beaverton, Oregon. Good friend of mine, I've known him forever. And I felt, you know, I felt so horribly bad for him because it's just an umpire nightmare. Now, to address what you're saying, you're absolutely right. Jimmy Joyce, one of the most respected umpires that's come, you know, that's ever been on

the field. He's a he's a, he's a good guy. You can talk to Jimmy. He's not going to bite your head off. He's, you know, I mean, he's, he's a, he's a guy that you want on the field. And if that, if that, if that exact same thing had happened with a really young umpire or with a guy that has had some challenges in his career, uh, especially a young empire, it could ruin you. I mean, it could, you could literally ruin you. You're confident. This could be so shot that it would be a real tough road to get back because that's all you're going to be remembered for it. In a way, it was good. It happened to Jimmy of all people just because of who he is. But I'm not sure.

And this is a situation where you really could say it wasn't an out in the seventh inning or something. It was one in the ninth inning. In fact, it was the last out of the ninth inning. Yeah, that's what I think is it makes it different from so many other slippery slopes. Because it's really happened. And, and Treve, I don't know if knows, but Jim Joy, also wants it changed. He's petitioned for it to get changed

on behalf of him for a while. Even that night, I remember people talking and all they could say is, oh, that was Jim out there? You know, like, they felt so bad for him because he was so widely respected throughout the league.

And like you're saying, if this is like a younger guy who maybe didn't have that sort of reputation, it's a totally different story. But I just remember people being like, man, like, that can't be that was Jim Joyce. Well, you see, yeah, yeah. And, you know, Trevor, you know, I mean, there may be umpires you necessarily didn't necessarily get along with,

but you understood they had a good work ethic. And they weren't slackers. They weren't, you know, whatever. I mean, and Jimmy was that guy. I mean, Jimmy, and so, and I've told this to Jimmy. I said, Jimmy, I know it's a backhandic album. Luckily, it was you because, you know, and there's a select few that it could have been where people would say, gosh, you know, it's awful.

that, you know, this is a guy that we, you know, we trust as, as a good umpire. But, but, you know, it could, it could have absolutely ruined somebody other, you know, to answer the question, okay, should you retroactively do this? This is the one situation where you really, you really could. I mean, in fact, this call is what really fast-tracked replay, you know, to correct obvious errors. And this was not only an obvious error, but an obvious error. share that that was going to be the last out of a perfect game. I understand the sentiment and wanted to change it, and I'm kind of that way myself,

but I just, I hate to open up a can of worms with something down the road. Well, if you did that, can you do this? Can you do that? I'm just not sure if they want to go that way. But if there is ever a time where you could retroactively do something, this would be one of them. Yeah.

I hear with that. I know Trev wanted to ask, and we've kept your long time, but in an interview, you stated that the most exciting game that you umped was not World Series, not All-Star, not a no-hitter, but the 2015 divisional series with the Rangers and the Blue Jays. What a game. And also, you were also umping the Blue Jays Rangers game the following season when Odor punches Atista in the face, which to me just blows my mind that you were at both events, so you know, like you were a first-hand and you were the second base umpire for the fight i mean so i just need to

hear no i was i was i was the first base umpire okay first base umpire um but but yeah it was first of all they that playoff game in toronto in 2015 game five uh you know i've got the plate obviously this it's it's you know this is this is for everything to to advance if if they if somebody it told me right before I left, I got the equipment on, about ready to go out and they said, hey, by the way, you're going to have a really never seen. You're going to have a protest that you've never had, a protest ever. You're going to have two

ejections. You're going to have several bench clearings, both players after each other, and also the fans are going to throw a bunch of shit on the field. Go get them. I might have said, you know what, I might retire right now. Dude, Toronto, especially, I mean,

Toronto, and a regular season game on a weekend, fans are rowdy. Then you put, you add in the playoff game. Well, it's a couple of my crewmates, they said, I thought, you know, these Canadians are always really friendly and stuff. I said, these are hockey fans. Yes. Yes. These are, these are hockey fans that have been drinking a long time. They are not friendly in Toronto. They are not. But it, you know, I mean, unbelievable game. Unbelievable inning. That seventh inning was an hour long or so and, and had everything.

you know the next year we get our schedule and and and I know they're only going to play twice once in Toronto, once in Texas. I look down and I go, I'll be dipped. We have got the Toronto at Texas after they go to Toronto. So this is the last three games of the season that are going to be playing. And it's in May. And so I thought, well, guys, strap it on. you put on the

ride helmets because here we go but I thought you know what they go to Toronto like 10 days two weeks before this maybe they'll just duke it out up there

get it out of their system and then we can you know move on and it was crickets up there it was crickets the first two games of this three game series it basically was crickets till about the seventh eighth inning whatever that

what that incident was and then it was one of I've had two unbelievably good baseball brawls and that was one of you know a lot of times they come out and you know it's a lot of talking and pushing and shoving or whatever but but i had one in old milwaukee county stadium uh that was a brawl we ran like 10 guys it was insane and then and then uh and then this one in in texas which was you know crazy i mean

givins gibbons had already been ejected for toronto uh over pitches with with danny isonia you know, had to play. And, and, uh, he comes out of the, the clubhouse when this comes out. And we had, we had Jeff, you know, John and Jeff, the two managers, uh, Bannister and Gimmis just, just, we had to separate that. I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was insane. And, and, and of course, I'm trying to remember how many people we ran out when we, we got, we got several. That was a lot.

Yeah, yeah. It was getaway game and we had to do it under report and we were not happy. Did you, did you get a, you get a, What was your view of, because this is one of the most iconic moments in the last couple of decades for hitters, at least. What was your view of the Joey Batista bat throw toss? Were you watching the ball or did you see it? I did. Right when he hit it, it was like, okay, that's like in Saskatchewan.

It was a bomb. It was a bomb. And so at first, you know, I was just out of instinct or what I watched the ball. But then I just something, you know, flashed, I looked over and there with the bat and I thought, hmm, yeah, probably that's not good. You know, you kind of make a man. We saw that. All right. You know, and of course, the place was absolutely going nuts.

And it's just, it was one of the most intense times I've been on the field, and there's been a lot of them. And the whole rule, I mean, how many times do you see a catcher just nonchalry throwing a ball back to the pitcher? And it's the bat. I've seen it, oh, that's right, never. Yeah, never. Honestly, never. I mean. You know what's ironic?

About two years before that, in the very first hitter of the bottom of the first inning for Kansas, City, St. Louis of Kansas City. Yadi, with nobody on, first hitter, Yadi threw the ball and that same thing happened. Of course, nobody on. And everybody, oh, you're okay? I didn't, I'm so sorry, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And didn't really think much of anything about it because it was a non-issue. And then this happened, you know, that day in Toronto. It was, it was intense. That's crazy. Well, I'm sure we've just barely. It was intense watching that game. Yeah. That was that was an atmosphere. game for sure.

Well, I just did, I don't know, a month ago or so, sports, whatever, the ESPN of Canada, SportsN, I think it is, whatever. Anyway, I was on a, they showed that game again, and they had me doing commentary of the seventh inning, or at least the top part of the seventh inning, about what I was going through and, you know, and I had some friends up there, and it was some emails. I mean, that game, they won two World Series, but that game absolutely ranks right up there as they're, one of their greatest sports moments ever.

That's great. I love it. Yeah, I'm sure that we've only, uh, you got a question, Jake? I was just, well, hey, I was going to say, I think you're our official umpire of talking baseball now because, hey, yeah, you're in. Whether you like it or not. We could, we could talk to you all day, man.

Um, but I was going to, I had one last thing. And then, uh, maybe we'll let you go. maybe we won't. I thought you're a proud Portland guy. You know, we did a little scow ducks before we started this. And I think it's funny kind of, you know, we're in a weird baseball cycle right now. Hopefully we get it back and who knows what it looks like. But when we're kind of in our normal cycle, if there's a down period, it always comes up, you know, what are going to be baseball's expansion cities. And, you know, we normally hop into Nashville, sometimes Vegas pops up. Charlotte, I think, could do it. You're in another one right now. Is it a Shoea. Should we? Should we be pushing getting Major League Baseball to Portland? Do you, is that city ready for it? I, I certainly would love the push.

The group they have going, you know, 15 years ago or 17 years ago, whatever, when Montreal was moving. Portland was mentioned, but was really never considered, frankly.

But it was, you know, it was one of the, it's at, yeah, Portland. This time it's a little bit different. You can see this,

this group trying to bring baseball is organized. They have they have they have they have backers. They have some some names. They've they've they've there's so many hoops that you have to go through just to even have a legitimate shot of a team. And it's such a process to go through. But these people seem to have all that, you know, are doing that seriously where we've never, at least since I've lived here, I've never seen a group that really has done that

and done those kind of things. I believe Portland as a media market, I want to say it's larger than four current MLB markets. So, you know, it's got the population base, I think, that you need. You, you know, in my mind, you need to have, you definitely need to have a retractable roof up here. April and even parts of May, it can be pretty wet. and September is usually pretty good.

But it's just one of those things, you can't have it. And they're not proposing a dome by any means. If you go to their website, they had the drawings for their stadium is outstanding. I mean, it looks really cool. I would love to see a team to come to Portland. I would love to see a baseball team here. I think the city is ready. I don't think they were ready 17 years ago or whatever, and quite frankly, it wasn't a serious attempt.

There's some competition out there. You know, Vegas is pretty. I mean, they got the NFL, NHL, and they're doing it. and, you know, I think Vegas is something. I do know the baseball wouldn't mind having somebody out west, you know, somebody out here in this time zone. I don't know what's going to happen, but I certainly hope if you guys can push it, that's awesome because I would love to see a baseball team here for sure.

They have a history of really good fans. I mean, it's going backaways now, but, you know, the Mavericks, the Independent League, if you've never seen the documentary on Netflix, the bastard batter of baseball, whatever it is, it's amazing. It's an independent league of like, you know, Kurt Russell's team. And the people in Portland came to every game and supported it. So there's a history of baseball fanhood in that area. Yeah, baseball actually has a lot of roots here in Portland with the, you know, Pacific Coast League.

And before that, I forget. But I mean, a lot of players have come through here, you know, in the 50s, 60s, whatever. So there's a lot of history with baseball in Portland. I hope that can develop into eventually getting the team for sure. Cool. All right. Well, thank you very much for joining us. I'm sure we only scratch the surface of stories that you have in your memory bank.

So we'll have to have you on another time and talk about some other stuff. Absolutely. I enjoyed it, guys. Thank you very much for the invite. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your quarantine. Stay safe. Thank you.

You guys, too. And there you have it. Like I said, I think we could have went way deeper. he's got other no hitters other all-star games and i'm sure he has tons of stories always blows my mind when you talk to players and umpires and people that are on the field of sports like how well they remember things he recalled that billy martin story i just watched it before he went live and it was exactly uh how he remembered it so that's crazy uh jake what was the question that you liked well hey i mean yeah we we could have i feel like every story he told we could have done an hour on we

could have done an hour on the Billy Martin. We could have done an hour on the game one George Bush thing. I mean, that's insane. That was awesome. I, uh, I love Trevor's question about just who was nasty back there. And he talked about Randy Johnson. And it's like, oh, yep, adds up. And then, dude, I don't know. I just had this moment of realization where on talking yanks the other day, me and Jimmy started laughing. If we actually had to stand in the box for an Eraldus Chapman fastball, if we could stay in. Because I don't think we would. I think like one shot. I think, like one shot, chapie fastball, I'm bailing. This dude has been behind the plate.

The two guys he mentioned, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, those are just two. Like he has seen baseball history over 32 years. You see the best to do it in live. Like I could stand here and yammer about how Randy Johnson's fastball is nasty. It comes from the second basement. I don't know how guys pick it up. And like, he synced it.

He seemed it. And I think that's, that's insane. The only people to have a better perspective are the catchers. Like hitters, you got to like swing.

So you're like, you know, you track the, you track the ball as long as you can, but eventually you got to swing. I mean, these guys are just,

they're seeing the pitch the entire way. And it's just, if you ever like, see a catcher cam, they don't do that that often. You kind of get the perspective that an umpire will have.

But, um, I was, that's the one question I wanted to ask him. And I was trying to think, who he would say. I thought he'd bring up someone like way back when. But yeah,

when he said Randy Johnson, I was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I mean, you see Randy Johnson on a good day. Like,

you know, that's some nasty shit. Yeah. And he was great. The story about George Bush and 2001 World Series, I've, I've promoted this documentary a million times

on a million different forms, but the nine innings from Ground Zero, it's like a one hour documentary on, recovering New York City recovering from 9-11 and then also using baseballs and escape. And they have behind-the-scenes footage of the umpire room when the Secret Service guys are getting dressed and when George Bush goes and says hi to all the umpires. And so he's probably in that scene. So if you're interested in more of that, go check out 9-Inx from Ground Zero.

Cool. Are we like an umpire-friendly pod now? Like, I want to, dude, everyone hates umpires. And I think there are some umpires currently who do, do, do the things that are bad. And he even kind of hinted at that. He was like, you know, majority of us and all that. But, uh, I mean, I can't to, to stand there and just pay so close attention to those

pitches for three hours straight. I mean, I don't think people realize, like, I know if I just stood there and not having to pay attention, I'd be tired. But having to like hone in on fucking pitches every two seconds. That's crazy, crazy thing to do. He mentioned their travel a little bit. And, you know, what is kind of lost on a lot of people is they don't have a home base, this entire year. I think they get a two, I want to say maybe it's like 10 days.

They get off during the season. They just get to go home. But other than that, they're on the road for six months. And they don't fly, they don't charter. Like they're flying in the mornings on a commercial flight. get your ass up at four in the morning, get to the city, relax a little bit,

then get your ass to the field. Like, it's a grueling, grueling six months for these guys. Yeah, baseball, you know, Yankees will have a four series home stand

and they're home for two weeks. Umps never get that. Never. Three games here, three games next city, three games next city. That's brutal. It's a lot.

And I think, you know, a lot of umpires will move to, you know, Scottsdale or, um, Florida because like at least because they do spring training too. People don't, you know, don't forget about that.

They want to at least have as much time at home as they can. So they'll see a lot of guys congregate in those areas. Yeah. Cool. All right. We got to get them back on. Maybe if there's some controversial call or something in the future, we'll have him be our insider.

We'll hook that up. Love it. I'd like, I'd like to have Dale Scott on on, on. Be our, like we need him on the line right now, guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just call him in. Yeah. He's got pipes too, man.

Well, he does radio show. Wikipedia, yeah, but man, he's got like the golden voice. Yeah, I was a big fan of that interview. All right. Thank you guys very much for listening. We'll be back on the next day. Is this your next TikTok? Are you going to do a Dale Scott day?

I want to ask him if he had a family member named Michael Scott in his name. We need to get used to umpire gear because that's a TikTok written all over it. I think I actually have the shirt.