For those who don't know, my grandfather was a National League Umpire. It was really neat growing up having the chance to experience baseball up-close like I did. My grandfather's name was Billy Williams or NL UMP #24 as his personalized plates read:)Some of the greatest childhood memories I have involve going to baseball games at Shea Stadium and Veterans Stadium to watch my grandfather and then visit with him after the game. After the games, when we were waiting from him to clean-up, we would stand in the tunnels and watch the grounds crews clean-up the field. It was an awesome feeling to be standing there, looking at the stadium near empty and so close to the field. Often times players walked by on there way to the locker room or headed home, but I was rarely phased as it was common-place:) I did later find out that not everyone did this:) And it was very cool in 1986 when the Mets were Great and we were lucky enough to go and see so many games! My brother was even lucky enough to meet some of the players!
To get to the point, this week on the MLB Network, there were re-plays are many All Star Games, so I started looking into what All Star Games my grandfather had worked in hopes of being able to tape one to show my children. Through my research I stumbled across a book called, "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires" by Bruce Weber. I could not get to the book store fast enough to buy it, because the excerpt was about my grandfather! It was beyond cool!!! Reading the book as brought back so many great childhood memories!
If you have a sec, look up the book and read the excerpt!
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