Third Team

David tells me that to be a good baseball umpire, you have to keep learning — always learning — and that’s how he approaches everything in life. In between geology, conservation work, drawing classes, gardening, and mastering flamenco, David is also an umpire for the BBF and a walking library of fascinating stories.

“Oh, put me in, coach, I’m ready to play today.
Put me in, coach, I’m ready to play today.
Look at me, I can be centerfield.”
— “Centerfield,” John Fogerty (1985)

“It’s a great song — I’m slightly bragging,” he says. “Creedence Clearwater played at my high school Senior Ball in 1968, all night, for four hundred bucks. Six months later, their first album came out. Suddenly, they were getting four thousand quid to play the Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. And that’s why ‘Centerfield’ was my walk-up song in baseball.” 

“Seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve — I was playing Little League. I played in high school, then I didn’t have time to play, and later picked up some softball.

From trips to the States, my son and I bought baseball kit and mucked about with friends, played a bit of softball in Hyde Park and things like that. Then my son came home from senior school, eleven years old, very excited because his PE teacher was starting a baseball club after school. My son blabbed all about me — my dad knows baseball. If I had any spare time, could I come down and help? I was more than happy to do so. So I went down. He asked if I played for the Mavericks. I said, I don’t understand — what do you mean, the Mavericks? The Mavericks baseball team, the Guildford Mavericks. And then, all of a sudden, a light bulb.

I went on the internet and found out about the Guildford club. I joined them in 2004 and started playing on their team. I played right up to the time I started doing umpire training with the senior umpires in the British Baseball Federation — doing clinics, learning the basics, and so on.

I’m 73 now, heading towards 74, and I can still play. But I really, really like the umpiring. And I think a really important thing to say about umpiring is this: we call ourselves the third team on the field. Because to have a good baseball game, umpires are extremely important.”