[Professional Blog] Shades of Shilling

He may not be Curt Shilling, but when you consider he's not getting paid to pitch for the C.B.C. Senior Canadians, Sean Cleary's actions on Wednesday night at Lions Park are nothing short of inspiring.

In Wednesday's Game 2 of the senior softball final at Lions Park, Cleary who has been out since earlier this month nursing an injury to his left hand was the only arm available to relieve starter Doug Marshall. He's a righty, so the pitching arm was good to go, but no ump would allow a pitcher on the field with his arm in a cast.

So, off went the cast an on to the mound went Cleary.

As if this story weren't strange enough, the umpires working the game went on to call seven illegal pitches on Cleary and one on Impact's Robbie Greene through the remaining four innings.

This in a league that may have had eight illegal pitches called the entire season. So all of sudden they decide to start calling them in Game 2 of the league final? That makes no sense.

But in a strange twist, only Impact suffered a run as a result of the illegal pitch call.

The umps were busy in the game as C.B.C.'s Darrell Walsh was ejected, as was Ron Ezekiel. That takes gumption, tossing the league president from the game.

Apparently Ezekiel wasn't too pleased and shouted to Bill Barron in the booth to "Turn off the lights, shut er down!"

Without fail, the umpires are the first ones off the field and out of the park after the game. I'm guessing they made their getaway a little quicker this time.

I wonder who'll work Game 3 tonight? Moreover who's going to pitch for C.B.C.? If Marshall started and Cleary worked relief, where were the other arms?