Baseball

I covered a lot of prep baseball and softball in the '90s and '00s, and many times I saw batters jut look at an umpire like "Did you call that one from Pluto?" for a second, but then just walk back to the bench. They knew better than to contest a call.

It was quite different in the minors. In 1984, I photographed Jose Tolentino (who had a cup of coffee with Houston in 1991) as he went absolutely psychotic after being called out at first by the plate umpire. I burned about half a roll as three guys held him back from goung after the umpire while screaming stuff like "You're a dead man!"

I saw a lot of tense arguments in the Cal League,but nothing anywhere near that. It was actually a bit scary.

(Before the next game, the ump asked me if he could have a few shots for his suspension report.i printed five 8x10s of Tolentino at his worst for him.

(Funny part was, Tolentino was already slated to go to Double-A, so he sat out his suspension across the country in Albany, NY.)