I'd like to see this on a baseball card.

And I think I have? Maybe on some especially vintage vintage?

No, not Josh Hamilton batting for the Angels. Maybe if I liked the Angels, or wasn't sick of Josh Hamilton news items, I would be more interested in seeing him play for the Halos. Though I am still in need of my first Hamilton on an Angels card — the one from the Spring Fever set.

Check out the lurking umpire in that shot. Standing there behind the pitcher. And it ain't the 2nd Base umpire either.

What?

Yup. He is calling balls and strikes from behind the pitcher's mound. This happened the other day in a Brewers vs. Angels game in Spring Training.

I wasn't watching; I can't imagine actually watching a Spring Training game on the Boob Tube. But I like to listen to them on the radio. The announcers have a bit more freedom than normal to wander off into baseball history, and when you are listening to Bob Uecker call a game, this is gonna happen a lot anyway.

In that game in the 1st inning, a pitch hit umpire Seth Buckminster behind the plate and actually broke his hand. He retired to the clubhouse, along with another umpire who went in to put on the extra gear for calling the game from the normal position behind home plate.

This only left one umpire on the field (Tim McClelland) as they only use 3 for Spring Training games. So to keep the game moving, he called pitches from behind the mound.

Uecker brought it to my attention that this is actually the historical way to do it. And as he discussed it a little bit, an image of an umpire in action back there formed in my mind.

From a baseball card, I think. But I don't have a prayer of ever remembering which one, if I even saw it on a baseball card....