|
Behind home and close to itBy BRUCE LOWITT © St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 1998 "But not here, not in front of everybody I know, my friends and family and all," said Garcia, who lives about half an hour from home plate, where he spent Tuesday night. "It was amazing, this game," he said in the post-game calm of the umpires' dressing room. "I mean, when the people started yelling and screaming, I got goose bumps." And patting his lean stomach, he said, "I got this feeling right here." Maybe the best thing about working this game was it wasn't his first behind the plate at Tropicana Field. He was there Friday night, too, when the Devil Rays christened the place with a 5-0 spring training victory against the Braves. It was good practice for Garcia, too. "So this time the stadium wasn't new," he said. "The background wasn't new; the bounce of the ball ... I'd seen it all before, so it made this game a little easier." As Garcia stepped behind the plate for the first inning, he wished John Flaherty good luck. The Devil Rays catcher reciprocated, "and then he said to me, "You going to take care of me like you did the first game?' I worked the plate for the first game he ever played in the major leagues," for Boston in 1992. "I told him, "I always take care of you, John. You're a good man."' He called the kind of game every umpire likes to call -- the kind where no one notices him. No close plays, no controversies. "I think I did a great job," Garcia said. "Some pitches I probably could've called balls that I could've called strikes; probably a couple of strikes I could've called balls. You call 400 pitches in a game, three or four of them could go either way. But nobody gave me any, y'know, looks, so I guess it was okay." He had the best seat in the house -- except for Flaherty and, obviously, the Detroit batters -- to judge the kind of game Wilson Alvarez pitched in the short time the Devil Rays starter was in the game. "He wasn't pitching that bad," Garcia said. "You look at the tapes, you'll see a lot of the hits were off the end of the bat, off the handle, hits that just landed in the right place. It was just one of those games." Perhaps the hardest inning for Garcia was the ninth. "That's one of the toughest things for an umpire to do -- work a game like this when it's 11-2 going into the ninth inning," he said. "You have to concentrate a little bit harder; you don't want to put yourself in position where you decide the game. You don't want to miss a pitch. They get a rally going and you're concentrating on keeping the strike zone the same, being consistent." Tonight's game will be a piece of cake for Garcia. Third base -- a chance to look around, to see his friends, to see the ballpark more as a fan, to see all the little things he didn't have a chance to see Tuesday because he was concentrating on the little piece of turf just in front of him. "That game's going to be fun for me," he said.
Business |
Citrus |
Commentary |
Entertainment
|
Home
T. PETERSBURG -- Richie Garcia had never been this nervous, at least not since the first game he umpired more than two decades ago. He'd worked opening days before, of course, even worked the first game ever for an expansion team, the 1977 Blue Jays in Toronto.
