Umpire rescues woman on Pittsburgh bridge
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John Tumpane can’t explain why he approached the woman as she hopped over the railing of the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Wednesday afternoon.
The woman told Tumpane she just wanted to get a better view of the Allegheny River below. The look on her face and the tone of her voice suggested otherwise to Tumpane, a major league baseball umpire in town to work the series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Tampa Bay Rays.
So the 34-year-old Tumpane reached for the woman even as she urged him to let her go.
“It was just pure instinct,” Tumpane said. “You hear kind of stories of this all the time, different scenarios, people aiding and situation where I was lucky enough to be there to help and try to think of everything I could do, hanging on to her. At times she wanted to go the other way. I was like, ‘not on my watch, please.’ We were just hanging on.”
And saving a life. Tumpane secured one of her arms. A bystander walked up and grabbed the other while another – Mike Weinman, an employee for the Rays – clutched her legs and pinned them to the railing while Tumpane mouthed to someone in the crowd to call 911.
What followed were chaotic moments of panic, fear and, ultimately, grace.
“I couldn’t tell you how long we were waiting for everyone else to get in place,” Tumpane said. “Obviously another power comes into be when you’re hanging on and you know what the alternative is of you letting go and not having other people to help you.”
Tumpane, Weinman and the third volunteer clung to the unidentified woman until emergency responders arrived. A police boat raced up the river to the iconic yellow bridge named for the Pirates Hall of Famer who died on Dec. 31, 1972, when a plane making humanitarian deliveries to earthquake victims in Nicaragua crashed. Now, 45 years later a crowd thrust together by fate brought a complete stranger back from the brink. Together.
“Once they were able to secure her, we were able to talk her back to help us out and we got her back on this side,” Tumpane said.
“After that I went up to her, she said, ‘You’ll just forget me after this’ and I said, ‘No, I’ll never forget you.’ This was an unbelievable day and I’m glad to say she can have another day with us and I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time.”
Petra Kvitova still has not regained full strength in her left hand, the one she uses to swing a tennis racket so well that she won Wimbledon twice – and the one that was stabbed by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic late last year.
Just seven months after that attack, Kvitova somehow carries the status of the closest thing to a favourite at the All England Club, where play in the grass-court Grand Slam tournament begins Monday.
Not that she’s all that concerned, understandably, with others’ thoughts about whether she can add to the trophies she clutched at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014 .
“I don’t see it like that,” Kvitova said in an email to The Associated Press.
“I am just happy to be back on the court and that’s it,” she said. “I will be focusing on myself and not thinking any further than my first match.”
Simply competing these days is an accomplishment in itself for someone who initially was told there was a possibility it might never happen again. All five fingers on her left hand were injured in the late December knifing, and she needed surgery.
“There was definitely doubt in my mind that I would ever be able to play again, because that’s what some of the doctors were saying,” Kvitova said. “But the more I heard people doubting if I could come back, the more it motivated me. I wanted to prove people wrong and I love challenges, so I think that’s what kept me going through the recovery process.”
The 27-year-old Kvitova, who has been ranked as high as No. 2 and is seeded 11th at Petra Kvitova still has not regained full strength in her left hand, the one she uses to swing a tennis racket so well that she won Wimbledon twice – and the one that was stabbed by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic late last year.
Wimbledon, only began practicing a couple of weeks before the French Open started in May. She made a last-minute decision to enter the clay-court major and wound up winning her opening match, then losing her next.
In her comeback’s second tournament, last week on grass at Birmingham, England, Kvitova earned the title, beating Ashleigh Barty 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final with the help of 13 aces.
That total, to Kvitova, was a sign that she is getting closer to the player who succeeds on grass on the strength of a strong serve and powerful forehands.
She pulled out of this week’s tuneup tournament at Eastbourne, England, citing an abdominal injury, but that didn’t stop British bookmakers from considering her among the likeliest to win Wimbledon: William Hill, for example, listed Kvitova as the favourite.
“I’m surprised at how well I’m playing, for sure,” Kvitova said. “It’s (a) very nice surprise . ... I wasn’t sure if I would have the strength in my grip
to hit as hard as before, but I showed in Birmingham that my serve is there and so is my forehand. Hopefully it will keep getting better as my fingers get stronger.”
Serena Williams is sitting out the rest of the season while pregnant, and Maria Sharapova is skipping Wimbledon because of an injured left thigh, so there are only two past champions in the field: Kvitova and Williams’ sister, five-time winner Venus.
Chris Evert, an 18-time major champion, thinks Kvitova could emerge from what’s considered a wide-open draw.
“Seeing that there are not too many, if any, grass-court specialists in the tournament, she is the one that I think everybody has to look out for,” said Evert, who will call matches for ESPN. “I think that was such a scare that she went through, it’s made her just appreciate the game a lot more. She’s certainly more relaxed. You can tell by her press conferences, the way she speaks, she’s just happy to be out there. That’s just freeing her up to play her best tennis.”