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Recognition is usually humbling, but never more so than when it seems to come out of nowhere.
That is probably one of the thoughts that went through Joe Landin’s head recently as he took in the surreal experience of being presented with the Trofeo Arturo Estrada Sanchez Award in Monterrey, Mexico, in recognition of his almost three decades of work as a baseball umpire.
Selection criteria include at least 25 years officiating games at the amateur, collegiate and professional level. The longtime Lubbock resident just wrapped up his 28th season calling games. He and his family traveled to Monterrey for the ceremony, culminating a process that had begun years earlier.
“It was a big deal, like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he recalled. “It was nothing like I thought it would be. I figured we would go, a ceremony would take place and we’d be done.”
That was only part of the weekend’s magic.
“It’s something to hear your name called in the way it’s intended by your parents,” he said. “My name is Joe, but my middle name is Luis, a Latino name, and you hear that name and see it on a banner in front of the stadium and everywhere we went. If you have ever felt like king for a day, that’s what it felt like.”
Landin said Mexico’s appreciation for baseball is on a different level. He likened the weekend experience to a soccer match. “At soccer, they constantly cheer,” he said. “That’s kind of how it was, just being so appreciated.”
The seeds for the incredible experience becoming reality were sown nearly two decades earlier in Landin’s career as an umpire.
“I met a gentleman in 2004 who I had officiated some international youth baseball with, and folks who were associated with the umpire recognition remembered me from then,” Landin said. “Then a couple of years ago, I officiated with Raul G. Reyna, who knew people in South Texas who had worked with me, so he took my name back to the committee that selects the umpires.”
Landin began officiating local baseball games in 1993 but wasn’t crazy about the experience and almost gave it up before resuming his career in 1995.
“I got back into it because my brother was involved as well, and we worked games together early on,” he said. “We had to work JV (junior varsity) games starting out, and I contend the toughest games I’ve ever worked were JV games that had coaches who were players when I was a player. We were all so inexperienced.”
Eventually, Landin earned the opportunity to work the UIL state high school baseball championships and was part of the umpiring crew for games in 2002-04. After that, he was asked to consider joining a Southland Conference crew. Since then, he has also worked Sooner Athletic Conference tournaments as well as Division I games.
“Coaches have a lot of say as far as who gets selected for what,” he said. “Local college coaches like Nathan Blackwood, Larry Hays and Brad Bass, they helped promote my college baseball umpiring situation.”
Those details and many others were shared during the ceremony. Landin was one of four umpires so recognized and each was presented with a plaque and trophy commemorating the moment. Other honorees were from South Texas and Mexico.
“They read a bio of each inductee during a presentation at the stadium,” he said. “There was a reception at the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame with the actual presentation taking place at the home of the Monterrey Sultanes.”
The Sultanes, part of the Mexican League’s Northern Division, are modeled after the New York Yankees, and Sultanes’ owner, Jose “Pepe” Maiz, was a center fielder on the Monterrey team that won the 1957 Little League World Series. Having the opportunity to visit with Maiz was one of many highlights of the weekend.
“They love the game in a way that we don’t,” Landin said of how the game is appreciated in Mexico. “For them, the game is everything about their history. Their Hall of Fame is not just about the Mexican involvement. They have a museum that goes back to the start of baseball. They have their own version of who the greatest are in their game, but they also recognize all of the history of the game. Fans have a favorite American team and a favorite Latino team.”
The overall appreciation extends to umpires, who are seen by fans as an integral and important part of baseball, he said.
“They celebrate all of the game,” Landin said. “Umpires are included. Here, umpires call the game and are considered a different group of people, but there, the umpires are cheered on.”
The trophy Landin received is named in honor of Arturo Sanchez, whose son started the umpire recognition in 1991 as a way to honor his father’s legacy.
“His son told me he created this because someone told him that his father, instead of a heart in his chest, had a baseball,” Landin said. “People who love this game, love it like that. It was an honor to be culturally honored by the Latino community of baseball people. It was just a feeling of, wow, you work a long time doing something you enjoy and someone out of the blue one day says, ‘You know what? You should be honored for that.’”
Doug Hensley is associate regional editor and director of commentary of the Avalanche-Journal. He can be reached at dhensley@lubbockonline.com
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