Description

Dale Scotts career as a professional baseball umpire spanned nearly forty years including thirtythree in the Major Leagues from 1985 to 2017 He worked exactly a thousand games behind the plate calling balls and strikes at the pinnacle of his profession working in every Major League Baseball stadium and interacting with dozens of other topflight umpires colorful managers and hundreds of players

What makes Scotts book truly different is his unique perspective as the only umpire in the history of professional baseball to come out as gay during his career Granted that was after decades of remaining in the closet and Scott writes vividly and movingly about having to play the game maintaining a faade of straightness while privately becoming his true self and building a lasting relationship with his future husband He navigated this obstacle course at a time when his MLB career was just taking offand when North America was consumed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic

Scotts story is also a baseball story filled with insights and memorable anecdotes that come so naturally from someone who spent decades among the worlds greatest baseball players managers and games Scotts story is fascinating both for his umpiring career and for his being a pioneer for LGBTQ people within baseball and across sports