Randy Smith
Some umpires exist on this earth to throw a coach out of a game. Thankfully, these guys are few and far between. I am not the best umpire in the world, but I love the games of baseball and softball and my passion is simply to be able to be on the field and do the best job I can. I have never ejected a coach or player while umpiring high school baseball or softball. First of all, an ejection at that level can cost a hard working coach and teacher a lot of money. However, I have tossed out a few coaches in the summer leagues. I guess that with no threat of financial loss, they get a little more brazen if you will.
Besides......the hotter temperatures in the summer tend to make everyone a little more on edge.
My first ejection as an umpire came in 1973 while officiating Little League games in Murfreesboro, TN. There was one guy who made it his goal in life to make every umpire he saw as miserable as he could. In my pre-Chattanooga umpiring career I had a total of four ejections......all in the same year.......and all the same person. The fourth and final time I ejected this man, came when we gathered at home plate for the pre-game meeting. He asked me, "How long will I last Smith? One inning, two innings.....?"
I answered him by saying, "That's up to you."
He replied, "Well why not just do it now and get it over with?"
So, I did. With an upward swing of my right arm, I tossed him. Before the game ever started, he was watching it from the parking lot.
My most unusual ejection came while umpiring a state slow-pitch softball tournament in Whitwell, TN. It was back in 1990 and rain had washed out the entire first night of play, and the tournament wasn't able to start until late Saturday morning. I called games from noon on Saturday until 9:00 Saturday night. I went home to sleep a few hours and started again at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Right before the sun came up a very thick fog came in quickly off Whitwell mountain and settled in over the playing field. One team scored 16 unanswered runs because they just couldn't see the ball when it was hit. They complained to both umpires and we asked the tournament director what to do. He told us...."Play ball," so we did.
By the time they got the third and final out they trailed in the game 24-8. They cussed us, and by the way this was a church softball tournament. I let it go because of the circumstances, but there was one lady sitting on the bleachers behind their dugout who started yapping when the fog rolled in and didn't let up at all. She called us, "Cheaters.....Cheaters from hell." over and over.
I asked one of their players whom I knew, if he could say something to her or ask her to be quiet. He replied, "Man that's my mother-in-law. I can't do a thing with her."
Therefore I tossed her. When she refused to leave, the Whitwell police escorted her to her car, and before she made it to her vehicle, the fog lifted and beautiful sunshine filled the Whitwell Park; clear as a bell. The team that had surrendered 16 runs in the fog, went quietly.....three up.....and three down.
Play Ball!!!
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.
He can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com