Gene,
During the late 50’s or early 60’s Coach Bramlett ask me to umpire a baseball game between Forest and Newton.
There was only one umpire and the home team was apparently was charged with providing that person.. Do you already smell some “home cooking”? Can you also imagine the one umpire calling both the home plate as well as the bases?
A lady from Newton positioned her folding lawn chair immediately behind the backstop and felt a need to comment on every pitch and every call during the game. She was really tough to ignore.
Ray Parish was the Forest catcher and he blocked a Newton runner from scoring. He clearly had the ball before the runner got there and he maintained possession throughout the play. When I called him out the lady went berserk. In her defense,the rule was soon changed so as homeplate could not be blocked with or without the ball.
She called me things that I was unaware of. After I talked with the Newton coach, he, thankfully, had her move to a more distant spot.
Maybe you can remember when the High School Activities Association began assigning umpires for baseball as they were already doing for the other sports.
I really do not remember who won the game but that was my very last experience with umpiring. By the way my service was gratis, which was about what it was worth.