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by Andy
Evangelista First
appeared 8 June 1999
No Strikes Against These Umpires
 They're accused of lacking eyesight.
Managers kick dirt on their plates. They're booed when they show up for work. But a couple
of major league baseball umpires proved last week that a big heart can go with thick skin.
National League umpires Mark Hirschbeck and Wally Bell, who were in town to arbitrate the
Giants-A's weekend series, spent a couple of hours Friday visiting some 20 youngsters at
the Lucile Packard Children's Health Services at UCSF, and not a single kid threw them out
the room.
The two men in blue were warm, caring and full of good cheer, but don't tell that to any
ball player. Big name professional athletes, entertainers and cartoon characters often
visit the children's units, but who would think that baseball umpires would be so well
received by the children and staff? Hirschbeck and Bell told baseball stories, joked with
kids, passed out T-shirts, posed for pictures, and exploded the stereotype of the umpire
as an anonymous grouch. One nurse, who spotted the two athletic-looking and
thirty-something fellows, mumbled only half seriously, "I thought umpires were blind
and old." Hirschbeck, whose ears, if not eyes, work quite well, laughed and replied,
"You forgot fat."
Hirschbeck, a big league umpire for 12 years, started the program "A Call to
Care" in which umpires visit hospitalized children in the cities with professional
teams. Umpires are the nomads of major league baseball. While players get to spend half
the season in their "home" cities, umpires have no home field. "We travel a
lot and sometimes have a lot of down time," said Hirschbeck. So instead of playing
golf, practicing their umpiring mechanics in front of the hotel room mirror, or attending
psychotherapy because they're yelled at a lot, he wanted to "do something
positive." He recruited many of his fellow umps into the program, which now has the
backing of the Major League Office. On Friday, Hirschbeck and Bell arrived in SF after a
series in Milwaukee, and were headed the following week to LA and Philadelphia.
 At UCSF, they were met with all smiles. For 13-year-old
A's and Giants fan Matt Tyler, they arranged to leave tickets so he could attend Sunday's
game. They offered to deliver a thank-you letter from a nurse to Giants manager Dusty
Baker. Shelly Matsumoto, the child life services coordinator who handled the visit,
cautions celebrity visitors about promising something to a child and risking
disappointment if they can't deliver. But Bell, who was scheduled to umpire home plate,
dedicated the game's first strikeout -- which of course he would call -- to one child. He
made good in the second inning. Hirschbeck told another who would be watching the games on
television, "If you see me take off my hat and rub my hair, it means I'm saying 'hi'
to you."
Big crowds showed up for the Giants-A's games at 3 Com/Candlestick Park last weekend, and
at UCSF there were no boos and a lot of hats off to the men in blue.
And Speaking of Home Plates
Many on campus are not happy with the cost-cutting move by Sodexho-Marriott Services,
which is now managing the Moffitt Cafeteria for UCSF Stanford Health Care, to quit doing
dishes and use only disposable plates and utensils. They know from the UCSF-sponsored
seminar in March on "Environmental Ethics for the New Millennium" that paper
goods used for food are not recyclable. Some have lost their appetite for waste and will
skip the cafeteria until it goes back to using water, soap and the hard stuff to eat off
of.
That's a Wrap
Hate to be an environmental fink, but we we're puzzled why Palio's (in Millberry Union)
uses a 171/2 by 171/2 inch piece of fancy paper for a half "San Secco" (its
fancy name for a salame and cheese on roll) which is only 21/2 by 3 inches. We're saving
that purple and white "to-go" paper as gift-wrap for the next toaster-wedding
present.
Readers: If you have any items or suggestions
for this column, send us an email: aevangelista@pubaff.ucsf.edu.
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