REDEMPTION BY PETER JACKEL ONCE thinking, I’m sure, that I had just been ability to make others laugh and be his limited physical skills started stabbed!” Scott said. “I screamed, ‘It’s entertained is what I believe shaped diminishing his childhood vision of ON THE a rat! It’s a huge f------ rat!” him his entire life. Whether he wanted being a future first baseman for the Grinding poverty is a reality in to be the center of attention or not, he Los Angeles Dodgers — “the problem Santo Domingo, a land where the poor just always was.” is I couldn’t run, throw, hit or catch,” VERGE OF simply exist in the remote shadows Scott agrees with the suggestion Scott recalls — the calling to become of the privileged. To this day, Scott that his personality is similar to an umpire echoed ever more forcefully BEING FIRED, recalls a housekeeper named Carmen the wisecracking Hawkeye Pierce within his soul. the four men paid $40 a month — far character from M*A*S*H. “Dale knew what he wanted to do DALE SCOTT more than the average wage in that “I was like Alan Alda. not so much early on,” Reeves said. “His drive to area — pulling him aside to ask if he in my looks, but just my personality,” succeed might be the biggest attribute, SET ABOUT TO might take her to the United States so he said. “I’m not a joke teller. I’m more in my opinion. As kids, when we she could send decent money back to of a quick wit and I’ve had a number would go to the local ballfield, he’d MAKE HIMSELF her family. But rats in refrigerators? of people tell me, ‘Oh, you should start umpiring our games. Now, That was a new one. be a comedian!’ Laughing to me is a there wasn’t one person on that field ONE OF THE “We were able to get it to run out, good cure for a lot of things. I laugh with enough talent to play baseball slamming the door behind us,” Scott BEST UMPIRES said. “We just looked at each other in silence for a second and then we all “SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE BECAUSE burst out into laughter. Here we were, IN MLB. MISSION 3 o’clock in the morning, standing I WAS NOT GETTING THE JOB DONE. MY in our underwear and me holding a CONFIDENCE AND EVERYTHING ELSE WAS ACCOMPLISHED. broom in the Dominican Republic. You just can’t make that s--- up!” JUST HORRIBLY LOW.” alf sleep-walking through Talk about the ultimate guy to darkness to the refrigerator in sit beside on a bar stool for a few Hhis Santo Domingo apartment cold ones. Dale Allan Scott is one of at myself. And sometimes that’s a professionally, but at least Dale made in the dead of night in January 1986, the most respected, longest-tenured defense mechanism. That’s how I deal it to the majors in some capacity. Dale Scott’s intention was to quench umpires in MLB, but he’s an even with things at times.” “I’d like to think we helped him his thirst and collapse back into bed. more memorable person. Shake Pursue just about any topic and adapt to his future encounters with Sunrise was just a few hours away hands with this self-effacing master Scott, a devoted history buff, will players and managers because of all and another grueling day under the storyteller for the first time and within likely amaze you with his command of the grief we gave him. He worked his scorching Caribbean sun at some five minutes you’ll swear he has been the subject. ass off to get to where he is today.” ballpark awaited Scott, who was still a lifelong pal. He has the distinctive, “I’ve known Dale since we were But foreshadowing the extreme just another name in an expansive radio-rich voice of a Vin Scully and seventh graders,” said Greg Reeves, growing pains Scott would endure pool of prospective MLB umpires. the comedic timing of a George Carlin. another of Scott’s childhood friends on his road to greatness, he struggled Hearing a strange sound as he He’s a guy who once held his ground in Eugene. “As a kid, Dale was well- mightily as an umpire in his early pulled open the refrigerator door, Scott with a melting-down Billy Martin as a liked by everyone. I can’t think of one years. unleashed an ear-piercing scream that 28-year-old upstart in 1988, yet could person who didn’t like the guy, which “I never talked to Dale like this could have awakened the Dominican effortlessly transition into a gregarious is rare at that age. Other than perhaps because I didn’t want to discourage Republic dead. A rat Scott swears lampshade-on-the-head cut-up who a certain player or manager, it seems him,” said Ken Larson, the retired was the size of a poodle emerged out could coax a smile from a corpse. to hold true today.” commissioner for high school, college of nowhere, ricocheted off his arm “He was the funniest kid I ever Maybe the gregarious Scott didn’t and semipro baseball in Eugene who and disappeared somewhere in the met and, to this day, is still one of the exactly fit the profile of a future got Scott started in umpiring at the age apartment. quickest wits I have ever known.” umpire back in the day because he of 16 in 1975. “We had a community “My three partners, all in their said Barb Hansen, a childhood friend simply didn’t have a combative bone college regional playoff (in the early underwear, ran into the kitchen MEDIA/NEWSCOM RICK OSENTOSKI/CAL SPORT from Eugene, Ore. “His keen wit and in his body. Yet when the reality of 1980s) and Dale had one of the 20 | REFEREE October 2014 REFEREE October 2014 | 21 REDEMPTION worst strike zones I’d ever seen that today behind a microphone within weekend. He was low, he was out and the confines of a radio studio or even when we left there, I said, ‘Boy, he’ll on a Las Vegas night club stage. Scott never make it!’ simply was blessed with that “it” “Lord behold, he did make it and factor. He was the lead drummer in this guy is a miraculous story. I’m the Henry D. Sheldon High School really, really proud of him because he’s jazz band and, as Hansen recalls, a great guy who earned everything “he was envied by most kids for he’s got.” this talent.” He frequently served as Scott was nearly fired after a master of ceremonies for high school disastrous second year in the big functions — his effortless knack for ad leagues in 1987 — credit the late libs is legendary — and he arrived in Marty Springstead, the AL’s executive that role for senior prom decked out in director of umpires at that time, for a tuxedo, top hat and cane. making a shoestring catch on Scott’s “He was a huge hit as a DJ for our career — but he persevered to place school radio station,” Hansen said. himself among the all-time elite “He always had a huge following contingent of umpires. Heading into and it was no surprise when he was what Scott says are the final few years hired as the youngest DJ at the most of his career, he has worked three popular radio station in Eugene World Series, three All-Star games, six during high school. After high school, league championship series and 10 he went on to get his degree in TV/ division series. radio broadcasting (at Oregon) and I “Dale was one of the best always believed Dale would end up as umpiring partners I ever worked with a sportscaster.” in 24 years as a major league umpire,” There Scott was as that 18-year- (Clockwise from above): Scott during an AL game in 1993. Working the plate in Milwaukee in 1987, when he was struggling to make his way in said Larry Young, who retired after the old star, working the 7-11 p.m. shift the majors. Eighteen-year-old Scott at the mic during his disc jockey 2007 season and now serves as umpire spinning hits of the day at KBDF in days at KBDF in his hometown, Eugene, Ore. supervisor for MLB. “He is now one Eugene, when AM radio still ruled the of our finest crew chiefs. The trait that airwaves. As a result, Scott’s profile is most important in a crew chief is among his classmates was off the The paradox is that it was also the when I come out and always thinking of your crew first. He charts. Hey, this kid was a star! longest stretch of Scott’s life, which go crazy on one of has always done that.” “He worked at KBDF for a number he illustrates with another Dominican you guys. Just don’t His impact even crosses over into of years on a part-time basis and was story. take it personally other sports. Bill Kennedy, a longtime certainly a hit at his school because of “I was having what I call a because I’ve got to elite NBA referee, insists his 10-year it,” said Bill Beecher, KBDF’s program ‘Dominican Day,’” he said. “I fire these guys up.’ friendship with Scott has enhanced director during Scott’s time at the remember it was about four in the And I say, ‘All right him both as an official and as a human station.