There should be more stories like this

I post this column by Bill Clark of the Columbia Tribune with the barest of threads to the Midwest League for two reasons:

1. The Jay Ward mentioned in the article was a manager of the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks when I was in the Northern League.
2. It's a pretty neat story

The background:

The brief news item on the sports page noted that former major league pitcher Randy Gumpert had died at age 90 in Wyomissing, Pa.

What a flood of memories were released by that name.

In the summer of 1956, Randy Gumpert was the manager and third base coach for the Kearney Yankees in the rookie Nebraska State League. Ol’ Clark was an umpire in the league.

The set-up:

Gumpert, Ward and Ol’ Clark came together to make baseball history one hot, late-summer night in Holdredge, Neb., the White Sox affiliate in the league.

On this night, Kearney was on a roll. Late in the game, Ward hit a grand slam home run. The inning continued until, with two out and a runner on first, the batter hit a long fly ball to deep center field.

The outfield fence in Holdredge was a 4-foot snow fence with more than a few missing slats. It was an umpire’s nightmare.

I moved to get a good look as the base umpire, and just at the last moment, the center fielder went between the ball and me. All I saw was the ball bounce. I had no idea whether the ball hit inside the fence and bounced or just cleared the fence, then bounced.

I ruled it a double and put runners on second and third. Out came Gumpert to let me know I was the only person in the park who didn’t know it was a home run. He had his say, then, shaking his head in disbelief, returned to the third base coach’s box.

The next batter walked, filling the bases, bringing up Jay Ward for the second time in the inning with the bases drunk.

Bingo!

His second grand slam of the inning! As I rounded the bases with Jay on his historic home run trot, I reached third base to see Randy glaring at me.

He shook Ward’s hand and said to me, "You still blew it."

The payoff:

Some 20 years later, I was covering the Midwest League and found Jay Ward managing the Twins’ club at Wisconsin Rapids.

I introduced myself and said, "Aren’t you the guy who made history with the Kearney Yankees by hitting two grand slam dingers in the same inning?"

He replied: "That’s right. But it would never have happened if the umpire hadn’t blown a call to set up the second one. It was one of the worst calls I ever saw, but I appreciated it. How did you know about that game?"

I grinned and said, "I was that umpire."

Awesome is a word that I use too much. But, this time it's appropriate: Awesome!