7/18/2008

Behind the mask

Midland Sports has a feature on Midwest League umpires Nathan Thompson and Brandon Misun. The story isn't that different from a player trying to move up the ranks...HOWEVER, this anecdote is a little odd from an outsider's perspective.
Misun is sitting inside watching “SportsCenter” with Imlay City native Nathan Thompson. I introduce myself and give them a quick rundown of what we had in mind. We’re still talking shop when Misun interrupts mid-sentence and points to the television.

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is face-to-face with umpire Charlie Reliford and the two are jawing back and forth. The Twins are playing the Boston Red Sox and think they just turned a rare 8-4-5 triple play. But the men in blue confer and reverse the call – correctly, as replays show – drawing Gardenhire’s ire.

The argument is brief but heated. Reliford tosses Gardenhire and the Red Sox eventually prevail 18-5. The young umpires in the room with me seem more enamored by the ejection than any other highlight from the game.

“I love watching them jaw at the managers,” says the 26-year-old Misun, “or more often than not, the managers jawing at the umpires.”
Keep the following in mind the next time this duo is in Grand Chute.
Misun wound up at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated in 2004 with a degree in political science. The summer before graduation, he started to think seriously about his next step and decided he had nothing to lose. He’d try professional umpiring.

Thompson was at Eastern Michigan working on a degree in aviation management and arranged his schedule one semester so he could take all online classes. He did it so he could enroll in umpire school.
It's a long article. But, worth the read.

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