My summer softball league kicked off last night right by the Washington Monument on The Mall.
We got an email yesterday afternoon with our fields and for whatever reason they included the umpires' names as well. I looked at our field and umpire...Red field, closest to the Monument...umpire's name was Lee Suggs. I laughed at the coincidence and headed to the field.
When I got to the field, I saw our umpire. He was huge. Dude looked like Machoke. And was wearing a Cleveland Browns t-shirt. It was him. Lee was my second favorite Hokie (the first being Michael Vick) and I bought his autographed poster from hokiejoe11 last summer.
I went up to him and just said "Lee Suggs". He replied "yes?" and the rest was history. I told him that his poster is in my room still, and that my second VT jersey I ever got was his. I conveniently left out the part where my first game at Lane was the one vs UConn in 2001 where he tore his ACL. He chatted with me for a few minutes and seemed genuinely happy to talk Hokie football with a fan.
Lee was cool as hell, umped a good game, and got the flying fuck out of there once it started pouring down rain and lightning started striking.
Just wanted to share this all with you guys because I needed to tell somebody that would give a shit besides my dad. If ya'll want to meet a Hokie legend, come on out to the Washington Monument on Thursday nights over the next few weeks and watch some shitty beer league softball!
Comments
Softball by the Monument sounds awesome. Very cool that you ran into ol Lee Suggs.
Thanks for sharing!
It was awesome until it started pouring down rain and there was nowhere to run to for cover. But in the weeks to come, it is gonna be awesome...especially if Lee Suggs keeps umping my games!
That's pretty effin cool. Just don't overdue it and go all:
In our rec sports league we don't have awesome stories like this. We just have to contend with an almost equal number of hoos.
Playing softball on the mall is a lot of fun - Having Lee Suggs ump my games would make it even cooler.
Glad to hear he is doing well!
Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. I umped county games for some time. 25 dollars a game, 100 dollars a night. It was really good part time money!
I'm actually with you there, fine side job, just wanted to preempt any more "well that's sad" responses like I got when I tweeted about it last night.
Lee Suggs has always been extremely classy and the epitome of Hokie.
When we were in Blacksburg I went home for a Franklin County basketball game against Fleming that he decided to show up for in the height of his defense-trucking, touchdown-scoring fame as a Hokie. He was surrounded by young kids the entire game asking questions and looking for autographs, the guy smiled the entire time and talked to everyone that approached him. Very gracious guy and complete class act.
You should say "Hey, Kevin Jones!". Then when he looks confused say "I never could tell you two apart, Untouchables for life" (While raising a high five in the air). See if he gives you that high five. I bet he would.
I feel like it'd go something like this:
What a loser, no one will high five him. I bet when he gets back to his small home he returns to his ugly wife
This is way too freakin' cool.
If it was me, the only difference would be that my team would be coed with me and the Hi-Techs......
and then I would wake up.
I've always played in Fairfax County on actual softball fields but recently moved into DC. What's it like/how does it work playing softball on the mall without fences, boundaries, etc? It just doesn't add up for me.
I've only played on real fields as well...we only had 3 innings so not a whole lot of sample size, but we did give up a HR that just rolled and rolled and rolled. OF has to be extra careful not to let anything over their heads. Still takes a shot to get it over a competent OF, though...the one hit off of us would have been a monster HR even on a field with a fence.
I played on the mall in a congressional league back in 2009/10
Playing on the mall was always an injury waiting to happen. As an outfielder in right field, I would be standing on the edge of the path where tons of people are running/walking, talking, taking pictures. I witnessed one near miss of an outfielder running at full speed and a lady pushing a stroller. Left field wasn't as bad, but once the ball gets over your head, the ball keeps going with no fence to stop it. We also had many foul balls hit parked cars on 7th St.
One guy on my team broke his forearm in half running hard through 1st base. Tripped because he couldn't see the cheap plastic base in the tall grass. Injury was gruesome and we ended the game right there. Thankfully someone on the other team had a car and rushed him to GW.
The layout of the fields closer to the Monument were much better than the ones by the Capitol - more room to run.
"Just wanted to share this all with you guys because I needed to tell some on body that would give a shit besides my dad."
Literally how I feel about every obscure Tech football thing I hear in the offseason. I give a shit, historyhokie! I give a shit.
yes, please give us more shit -give us ALL more shit... WE NEED MORE SHIT!!!
Not VT related, but best rec league story I have is playing flag football against 'He Hate Me' years ago in Charlotte. That guy could flat out fly. It's not every day you play flag football with a guy that played in a Super Bowl.
I was at that 01 Uconn game too. What's amazing is that when he got hurt he'd already scored two touchdowns that day. You could always count on TD Lee to find the end zone. Thanks for sharing this story, I for one definitely gave a shit about it.
He got mad in class once when someone took his "turn off the lights" job. He always sat in the first desk closest to the classroom door. Was quiet though.