With tears streaming down his cheeks, umpire Eric Gregg talked about his friend, John McSherry, at a memorial service Friday for the 51-year-old umpire who died on opening day in Cincinnati.
"There was nobody like him," Gregg said softly. "When I went to umpires school in 1971, he picked me up at the airport. He had that big voice. He said, `You must be Eric Gregg.'"I modeled myself after him. I tried to call balls and strikes like he did. He was the ideal umpire, a big man with a big voice."
Gregg said his friend's death left him in shock. Like McSherry, he is a big man, listed at 325 pounds. "We all have mirrors," he said. "You've got to think about it. My wife keeps after me, calling me after games, asking me what I'm going to eat."
Ed Montague, speaking for more than a dozen umpires who attended the service at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church in the Bronx, a couple of subway stops away from Yankee Stadium, remembered McSherry as a gregarious colleague.
"John's size was big but it was dwarfed by his sense of humor," he said. "His love for baseball was unsurpassed. He was always self-conscious. He'd say, `How'd I look on that play? Was I right on that play?' "
Like Gregg, Montague first met McSherry in umpiring school. He remembered not knowing what to make of this huge man. "I'm from California," he said. "This was my first encounter with a New Yorker, a guy from the Bronx. He reminded me of a drill sergeant the way he yelled at Eric, myself and (Steve) Rippley. But he was big teddy bear with that gruff outside.
"He was respected and loved by everybody. His love for baseball was surpassed only by his love for his family."
Montague said he had known McSherry for half his life. "We live with each other more than we do with our families," he said of umpires. "It's like a brotherhood. There's a deep love for each other."
The devotion was obvious from McSherry's colleagues including his crew, Jerry Crawford, Rippley and Tom Hallion, who all attended the service. Also present were NL umps Bruce Froemming, Paul Runge, Randy Marsh, Gary Darling, Mark Hirschbeck, Wally Bell, Jerry Davis, Angel Hernandez, Jim Quick, Charley Reliford and Charlie Williams. Representing the American League were umpires Dave Phillips and Don Denkinger.
At least one member of each of the NL's seven umpiring crews were present at the chapel where McSherry was baptised and from which he often snuck off to see baseball games.
Gregg could not hide his emotions, crying when he entered the church and again at the conclusion of the service. He talked about his profession with passion.
"This is not a job," he said. "It's fun. We love it. Umpires always wanted to be players and we found out early that we couldn't do that.
"It's the only job where you have to be perfect the first day and the next day be better than that."