GETTING IT RIGHT

Still Standing Tall

By Steven L. Tietz

Richard “Cinco” Inzunza of San Diego picked up a strong love for umpiring Little League Baseball from his father, and not even having a foot amputated was going to stop him.

“I’ve been in it my whole life,” said Inzunza, 41. “My dad always told me that he loved to see a kid smile. That it was the best feeling in the world. We both just love the kids’ passion.”

But the 10-year veteran umpire and president of Luckie Waller Little League had his passion tested. In December 2017, a frightening odyssey began that included about a dozen surgeries and the eventual amputation of his right foot.

“I had been feeling out of it,” he said. “I thought it was a cold or flu. … When my foot swelled up to about four times its normal size, I got really worried.”

He had contracted a rare, flesheating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis in his foot. Only 600 to 700 cases occur each year and up to 30 percent of the cases can be fatal. Inzunza went into the hospital immediately and did not leave for 41 harrowing days.

“For my first surgery, one doctor said I’ll be fine and the other said I could die,” he said. “It wasn’t the most encouraging thing I heard.”

But antibiotics and several small “clean-out” surgeries could not save his foot.

“Finally, they gave me an option,” Inzunza said. “I would have my foot amputated, but there was still a very good chance I would be able to walk again.”

Thinking of his wife, Liz, and his three children, Inzunza has his foot amputated just above the ankle in January 2018.

After some challenges, Inzunza got his prosthesis two months later and did a lot of physical therapy. “They worked me hard,” he said.

But it paid off, because by May 2018, he was again working as a base umpire.

“They needed some help,” he said. “It was hard to bend down, and my mobility was off, but eventually I got used to it.”

Inzunza said his “baseball family,” along with his real family, were his prime motivators. It has been difficult at times (he got a new prosthesis in 2020), but Inzunza has impressed his peers.

Just as many leagues across the country canceled seasons due to the pandemic, Luckie Waller Little League lost its 2020 season as well, but Inzunza is optimistic a 2021 season can be played.

Like his dad, he wants to see the kids smile. Steven L. Tietz is an award-winning journalist from Milwaukee. *

Richard “Cinco” Inzunza, San Diego, continues to umpire Little League Baseball despite having his foot amputated after he contracted a rare, flesh-eating bacteria. Pac-12 Assigns All-Black Officiating Crew

On Dec. 19, 2020, Michael Mothershed led the first all-Black officiating crew to work a Pac-12 football game. Stanford defeated UCLA in a double-overtime thriller, 48-47.

Joining Mothershed were Michael Stephens (umpire), Darryl Johnson (head line-judge), Harold Mitchell Jr. (line judge), Gary Reed (side judge), Michael Hall (field judge), Antony Little (back judge), Michael Marsh (center judge), Judson Howard (replay official), Cleo Robinson (communicator) and Javarro “Jay” Edwards (alternate).

The Pac-12 joins the Big Ten and the NFL as having assembled an all-Black football crew during the 2020 season. On Oct. 24, the Big Ten became the first major NCAA conference to have an all-Black football crew for the Michigan-Minnesota game, and NFL referee Jerome Boger led an all-Black crew for a Monday Night game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 23.

College Team Honors High School Referee

The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team “saved a seat” in the stands at its Feb. 2 game for a high school basketball referee who collapsed during a game at a nearby high school and later died.

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) referee Tracy Krueger died Feb. 2 after being rushed to the hospital the night before. Krueger blew his whistle in the second half of a game between Richland Center and Mount Horeb to catch his breath. Shortly thereafter, he collapsed and was attended to by medical professionals.

Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard tweeted he was coached by Krueger in the early 1980s at basketball camps. He said Krueger’s death “leaves an enormous hole, not only in the basketball community in southwest Wisconsin, but athletics in general in that area.”

Krueger was a licensed WIAA basketball official for nearly 40 years.

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