By Phil Hudgins
Columnist
Now that I’m past my prime as a contending sports star, I can look back with clear eyes and see why I never made it to the big leagues. I’m not athletically talented. That was obvious, really, the first time I was chosen close to last in a pick-up game of football played in the middle of Banks Street in my hometown. I had long arms and legs for my young age, but they seldom worked well together.
So now I’m wondering if I missed my chance to shine as a referee or umpire. And then I remember my brother Ken’s story about breaking a tibia as he refereed a B-team football game. Actually, Ken didn’t break his tibia. A kid who was a good 10 yards from the action broke it for him when he blocked my brother’s left leg.
Thinking he had suffered only a Charley Horse, Ken officiated the rest of the game—more than two quarters—drove home, pulled himself upstairs to the shower … and fainted. He sported a hip-to-ankle cast for the next 19 days.
Besides the slight possibility of being hurt, I also see unruly sports fans making unkind gestures toward the officials and calling them bad names. It can be unpleasant for officials in the pros, but it’s even worse in youth games mainly because of loud-mouth parents who know it all.
Some of those referees of youth games are quitting because they’re tired of the incessant verbal abuse from parents, and sometimes coaches.
I’ve been thinking about those officials lately because I’ve been watching a lot of sports on TV: the Atlanta Braves seesawing from losses to wins as mid-season approaches; the Atlanta Hawks fighting valiantly in the basketball playoffs. (Unfortunately, they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks.)
I’ve watched and sometimes felt sorry for the officials. They’re only human. They make mistakes. But are they as good as they used to be? I asked Dock Sisk, referring specifically to umpires.
“Umpires are probably better than ever,” he said, and he should know, because he and Nan, his wife, have conducted high school and college baseball and basketball camps for more than 30 years. Marvin Hudson, who umpired in two World Series, was one of Dock’s trainees.
But now, in addition to their other duties, major league officials have to check pitchers for “foreign substances” if they suspect they’re doctoring the ball between pitches. Why the emphasis on substances all of a sudden? “It’s probably to the point that everybody is doing it,” Dock said. “At least the successful pitchers.”
And then there are replays and challenges, which occasionally, but only occasionally, indicate the officials really do need to see their optometrist. But, as Dock said, officials make the right calls most of the time. It’s the bad call everyone remembers.
So I’ve decided maybe I wouldn’t have done well as an official, either. I was better at taking photographs from the sideline or court-side. If I missed a good shot, who would know but me?