Christal and Bible

Discussion in 'Baseball' started by Orangeblood, Feb 17, 2015.

  1. Orangeblood

    Orangeblood 1,000+ Posts

    A post for NB.
    ---------------------------------------

    COLLEGE BASEBALL

    Almost 'last call' for umps

    After more than four decades working Texas games, Bible, Christal will end legendary careers this season.

    They're not supposed to be noticed at all.


    But in Texas' home opener against UTSA on Tuesday, they should be slightly more conspicuous because legendary umpires Jon Bible and Randy Christal will work a Longhorns baseball game for the 42nd consecutive season. Their last season.


    Because when the season ends, in umpiring parlance, they're out-ta here.


    Tuesday marks 40 years to the day that Bible worked the very first game at Disch-Falk Field, a 1975 doubleheader versus St. Mary's. Bible is likely to work second base and Christal third.


    One of them probably should call balls and strikes out of sheer respect for their brilliant careers, but neither has worked behind home plate in at least seven years. That's for the young bucks coming up.


    Their time has come and almost gone, and they're fine with that.


    They have been fixtures at Disch-Falk for decades, as much institutions there as the Wild Bunch fan group and Cliff Gustafson with his hands in his back pockets and uber-fan Scott Wilson chanting from the first-base grandstand.


    They used to handle a staggering workload, occasionally as many as 90 games in a year, all while working full-time jobs. Christal, 66, taught management in the training division at the state comptroller's office for 38 years before retiring. Bible, 65, an attorney with three degrees from the University of Texas, still teaches business law at Texas State after 30 years.


    But Bible took to umpiring almost instantly, ever since Lefty Graham, the dad of Rice's Wayne Graham, noticed him as a pitcher for Robert E. Lee High in Houston and asked if he wanted to fill in for an absent ump at a Little League game. Christal got hooked after watching a Little League game in Austin and umpired the same for six seasons, starting in 1969. Nine years later, he was working at the College World Series, the first of eight he has umpired.


    "I originally thought I'd go till I was 70," Bible said. "But now if someone hits a long gap ball to the outfield, I feel I'm moving, but I'm really not. We have standards, and we both feel the time has come."


    Bible still jogs, cycles and plays golf three times a week, while Christal lifts weights three times weekly, jogs the mile and a half to the Onion Creek Club and gets in 200 crunches every day.


    "It's funny," Bible said. "We have 15 Omahas and four football national championships between us. Our careers paralleled, and we live a mile apart."


    They began working Longhorns games in 1974, and business manager Al Lundstedt would fork over $45 for a doubleheader's work. When the pay increased to $55 two years later, Bible said, "We felt like we'd died and gone to heaven." Now some umps get up to $700 a game.

    Disch-Falk Field has been a little piece of heaven for these two giants of the game through good and bad.


    Like when Bible threw out Texas Tech pitching coach Frank Anderson four or five times, including one day after Anderson told Bible he was calming down and "turning over a new leaf." By the fourth inning the next day, Anderson was still giving Bible an earful and got tossed, with Bible yelling, "That new leaf didn't stay turned over too long."


    Or like when Christal ejected Texas catcher Jeff Hearron, inciting ugly remarks from pitcher Roger Clemens, and he decided not to work Longhorns games the rest of the 1983 season. "Roger wanted some pitches called, and he wasn't getting them," Christal said. "Hearron said something (ugly), and I thought I'd find someone more peaceful to work with."


    Of course, when Texas squared off against Fordham in the CWS months later, there was Christal working second base. He still remembers the Statesman's headline the next day: "Christal Greets Horns at Second Base."


    That game went off without a hitch, unlike another Longhorns game at Omaha in 1982, when Christal blew a call and wrongly ruled Texas' Spike Owen out at third, killing a rally.


    "They've let Randy hear about it for 30 years," Bible said. "On Tuesday night, you will hear somebody yell out, 'Hey, Christal, Spike is still safe at third.' "


    These two were hardly alike but remain close friends. Behind the plate, Christal has a rep for calling the high strike. Bible extended his corners.

    Christal is a fanatic about his clothes and gear. Heck, he's even shined Bible's shoes. Christal still remembers a season-opening series in Louisiana when they were in the dressing room and Bible pulled out his umpiring outfit still unwashed from the previous season.

    Texas coach Augie Garrido has nothing but respect for the pair, calling them "the ultimate professionals. They recognize their role as shepherds of the game. They're both really honorable guys."


    And they should be remembered that way. They're not above admitting their mistakes, and they readily take the blame, something coaches appreciate.


    "In basketball and football, you can get away with a no-call," Christal said. "But in baseball, it's a ball or strike, it's fair or foul, it's safe or out. You don't have the ability for an infamous no-call. You have to make a call."


    Even if Spike was safe.
     
  2. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    OK, why am I crying for umpires, for Christ's sake?
     
  3. NBHorn7

    NBHorn7 Pimp Daddy

    I like both those guys and talked to them often. I always felt you could talk to John about any call. I remember having the double chicken fried with what always looked more yellow than white gravy after a game with them at the old "Stallion" cafe. Yes, that was a long time ago. We talked about baseball and all different kinds of calls and rules.
    They didn't know I knew that kind of stuff and it gave me some cred with them. So they will be missed and yes, they were both good umpires in baseball and refs in football. John was a good administrator in both sports too. I wish them nothing but the best in the future.

    That said and I mean this with all my heart. SPIKE WAS STILL SAFE AT THIRD! Anybody in Omaha that year knows what that means relative to this topic and what that call cost the Horns at the CWS. I can still see the look on the always calm Chuck Black, the son of Coach Black. He was sitting next to me and we were on the third base side not far away and had an excellent line of sight. That was as excited as I ever saw Chuck get about anything. We and most Horns let Christal know it. l can't ever get over that call, sorry. It wasn't even close as, Spike had already popped up out of his slide before the tag.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2015
  4. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    You're right, NB -- I was sitting on the third base side, too, and I also had an excellent view. Spike was safe, no doubt, but I've had to learn to let it go. Gnashing my teeth about it 33 years later isn't going to change it, and I suspect Randy knows he was wrong.
     
  5. NBHorn7

    NBHorn7 Pimp Daddy

    Oh, I have let it go, but once in a while it still does my heart good to rant about it. I still like to think about Chuck having gone crazy about it too. You know Chuck, and how out of character it was for him.

    If I had gnashed my teeth for 33 years I would be wearing dentures and I'm not. :smile1:
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2015
  6. Orangeblood

    Orangeblood 1,000+ Posts

    Christal still umps at 3rd now and then at DFF. And there is not a game he is there that he doesn't hear about that call.

    Bible rarely leaves 2nd when he works at DFF. And he is almost always the crew chief (either officially or unofficially). I think that he prefers being as far away from the fans and players of both sides as possible. ;)

    Personally, I have always felt they were high quality umps. Will be sad to see them go and guys like Henderson stay.
     
  7. Texanne

    Texanne 5,000+ Posts

    Mild-mannered Chuck Black .... if he'd had a gun that day, Christal would be a dead man.
     
  8. UT Horn Fan

    UT Horn Fan 500+ Posts

    I was disappointed when I heard the news of their retirement. However, the Big XII is probably glad to see them go. Bible and Christal make it obvious how bad the conference umps are. I am always happy to see them working the games.

    Now, if we can just find a way to get rid of Tim Henderson and his antics.
     
  9. TxnByBirth

    TxnByBirth 1,000+ Posts

    Who was behind the plate in '84 when Bill Bates was called safe against Lamar for the game winner/Series sender? That was a brutal call.
     
  10. NBHorn7

    NBHorn7 Pimp Daddy

    That was an NCAA playoff game, so it was whoever they sent to the Austin Regional, which wasn't any local umpires.
     
  11. Son of a Son

    Son of a Son 1,000+ Posts

    Henderson...Disco Bob...Bleh! I really dislike the current crop of umpires. Give me Jenkins any day!
     
  12. Horn87

    Horn87 1,000+ Posts

    Jenkins!!
     
  13. orangeblack&gold

    orangeblack&gold 500+ Posts

    Man, ol' Henderson makes it fun to be at the park no matter what big ol' slot he's filling around the diamond. Love chatting with him about some of his hilarious antics during the quiet periods.
     
  14. marley

    marley 500+ Posts

    Orangeblood, I heard a story that when Bible reached 50, he refused to get behind the plate because he said that he got tired in the late innings and was concerned he wouldn't always make the right call.

    As for Christal, a friend who worked at the Comptroller's Office said that Randy told him years ago that he didn't like the Horns. I think it has shown on occasion over the years.

    Bible, OTOH, has been pure class during the whole time.

    You might recognize the gathering in that avatar . . . .
     
  15. ElginHotSausage

    ElginHotSausage 500+ Posts

    Well the game still would have been tied and we could have won the next inning. Anyway, I still have that game on tape, if I could just find a working VCR. I do remember that Dennis Cook hit the SF, but right before he hit it, he called timeout in the batter's box and went over to get a fresh chew in the on deck circle.
     
  16. NBHorn7

    NBHorn7 Pimp Daddy

    The catcher blocked the plate and Bates may have gotten under the tag, but he never touched the plate.
    The catcher was a big guy and Bates bounced off him like a rubber ball.
    What had us all worried was that he left third on the tag way too soon and they didn't appeal third.
    It was a shallow fly ball to left and we won 6-5 if I recall correctly to win the Regional in three straight games.
    We beat Lamar twice and UNLV.
     
  17. AusTex

    AusTex < 25 Posts

    As I recall, the home plate umpire in the Texas-Lamar game was Tony Patch. I believe he was from the San Francisco area and was considered to be a a highly rated umpire.
     
  18. TxnByBirth

    TxnByBirth 1,000+ Posts

    Oh, I am in no way implying Texas wouldn't have won the game, but it was a botched call for sure. I grew up in Beaumont and that call became infamous there despite the fact that it didn't necessarily mean Lamar would have won the game. Selective retention and all that.

    Also, if memory serves, Texas routed Lamar the next year in the regional something like 10-1. It reminds me of the Kansas game in 2005 after all the squawking the Jayhawks did after the 2004 game.

    Oh, and I have a working VCR.... :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2015

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