From spysoftball.com
Seattle Metro Softball Umpires Association is proud to announce the selection of Lori Bish as a member of 2008 Olympic Softball umpiring crew.
In an announcement made 11/02/07 at the ASA National Council Meeting in Louisville Kentucky, Lori was announced as one of two US umpires to be selected to travel to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing China and umpire the best Women’s Fastpitch Softball on earth and represent the USA at the greatest athletic competition in the world.
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Yeah, Lori! Picture above was taken at the NCAA Div 1 South Carolina Regional Softball tournament in Columbia South Carolina last May. I was pleased to discover that I had this picture. Sometimes I DO take the right picture, lots of times, not.
Here's my Lori Bish story. I traveled with another couple to the South Carolina Regional (don't ask why U Oregon was playing in a 'regional' in South Carolina....but there we were). We were on a very large plane, Seattle to Atlanta, filled with people. During the flight, the flight staff announced that there was a medical emergency and asked that any doctors or others with medical training please come forward. At the end of the flight, they added that paramedics would be taking the stricken passenger off first, so please wait before trying to get off the plane. Turned out that the ill person was just a few rows behind me. When the paramedics arrived, a woman caring for her gave a very impressive professional synopsis of her medical condition (I think it was suspected appendicitis).
Afterwards, we chatted with the medical person
"That sounded very professional, are you a doctor?".
She laughed and said that she was a firefighter paramedic. Then she looked at us ...
"I know where you are going. You are going to the Regional in Columbia". We were stunned, these aren't exactly well-attended events especially from visiting teams. Let's say when all of the Oregon fans were congregated, there were maybe 10 and that included the bus driver who got a free UO hat. She then added
"I'm going there too, I'm one of the umpires"
Wow, what a coincidence. More chatting. We asked if she ever umpired Pac 10 games.
"Yes, I just umpired in the Bay Area this past weekend"
"Hey, you must have umpired one of the Oregon games!"
"Yes I did, at Cal"
"My daughter plays second base for Oregon"
Lori looked me straight in the eye and said "Tell her next time, don't leave early!"
We all laughed. The previous weekend, Susanna had been called out for leaving early at first base. Doesn't happen very often but occasionally you can be called especially if you are a speedy aggressive base runner (which Susanna is). Here we are in a crowded plane in Atlanta and this is the umpire that called her out last weekend in Berkeley. How funny is that?
We all got on the plane to Columbia. The tournament happened, Oregon lost in a heartbreak to the home team, Univ of South Carolina, ending their season and Susanna's collegiate career. But I've written about that elsewhere. Or not yet.
Lori accompanied us on the trip home. She umpired the next weekend at the SuperRregional here in Seattle the following weekend (I attended one of the games) and at the College World Series. She was the umpire behind the plate during the final NCAA championship game. I also saw her up at Canada Cup. Susanna may be interested in becoming a firefighter and she's agreed to be a mentor for Susanna should she want to pursue this career.
So now, she has been selected as one of the two US umpires for the Beijing Olympics (probably the last for softball). Congratulations Lori!!
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