Standing In The Line Of Fire

UMPIRES ARE IN STRIKE ZONE OF ERRANT PITCHES, SWINGS

FARMINGTON — For veteran umpire Malcom Hoffman in 23 seasons of calling games the most hazardous setting is at a college baseball game.

“College ball is the most dangerous of all. The kids can throw as hard as bullets but they can’t control it,” Malcom Hoffman said.

Both Malcom Hoffman and his son, Alex Hoffman, 19, a second- generation umpire, prefer to wear a major league West vest coated in neoprene with layers of hard plastic sheet panels. The vest only protects the ribcage and chest but doesn’t come down to the waist.

“You want to protect your chest, your genitals and your feet. Whatever is unprotected the ball will find. You depend on the catcher for the rest of your protection.”

“It’s comfortable, you can bend over without it crushing you,” Malcom Hoffman said. “You can take a shot full into the chest with a baseball bat. You’d barely feel it but it’d knock you down. I’ve had that happen, too. A kid swings and bam, it comes back and hits you right in the face mask.”

A few years ago Malcom Hoffman was umpiring a college baseball game at Ecclesia College, at Springdale, and the Royals featured a 6- foot-10 starting pitcher on the mound. Malcom Hoffman recalled the pitcher wasn’t just tall, he was a big man.

According to Malcom Hoffman, the catcher called for a curve ball and the pitcher threw a fast ball on the very first pitch of the game, which the catcher missed completely and didn’t even attempt to stop.

“He was over here and the ball was over there. He never touched it,” Malcom Hoffman said.

The pitch smacked into Malcom Hoffman at full speed — 95 miles-per-hour — landing just below his vest.

“That’s like getting shot with a bullet.”

While grace protected Malcom Hoffman from serious injury, he was hurting and wincing; the play negated his effectiveness.

“Now, I’m huddled directly behind the catcher. That’s not an effective way to call a game,” Malcom Hoffman said, explaining he knew he missed some calls that day because of the angle. “In Major League Baseball the umpire is never directly behind the catcher. You step out a foot-and-ahalf so you have an unobstructed view of the plate.”

While Malcom’s wife, Lynette, would bury herself in a book, she never did mind attending a game and the family devotion to the sport took them all over.

“Baseball used to be our life, that’s all we did. If I wasn’t umpiring a game, we were at games or at practice,” Malcom Hoffman said.

He maintains a sense of humor and said one of the funniest things to ever happen in baseball was during a game at Monticello with radio announcers, who according to Malcom, apparently had quite a little audience going and he was getting feedback.

“They would say, ‘Strike? I don’t know what he’s looking at but OK.’ You can hear them.” Malcom characterized the game as an interesting experience with an ongoing evaluation of his performance within earshot as he worked home plate.

Son Alex has spent a lot of time on the baseball diamond with his father, creating great memories.

“We had a very eventful baseball career. We still umpired together,” Alex Hoffman said. “We still ruled the game. He and I got into a lot of controversy, some of it was true anger.”

Alex Hoffman recalled an ending to a 14-year-old-andunder game soured one fan.

“She was going to kill me before I got to my car,” Alex Hoffman said. Malcom, who was there, too, noted that the woman wasn’t after him.

“The lady came out of the stands with a red pump shoe,” Malcom said, “and was going to beat him with it. I said, ‘Run, boy, run.’”

The majority of the games they worked weren’t nearly as eventful.

“Most of the time it’s a lot of fun,” Malcom Hoffman said. “There’s no controversy and one team wins and it’s over.”