Tales from the Umpire's Chair at the Hamptons’ Celebrity Charity Game

Two players at past Artists & Writers Game, Ed Bleier and Benito Vila, sound off about the enjoyment they got at past encounters of this annual charity game held on the ball field in Herrick Park behind the Stop & Shop in East Hampton. This year’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 16.

Ed Bleier

Throughout my very long career at Warner Bros. and ABC-TV, I was a business executive. Hence, a “suit”; a colleague, but not participant, in the skills of the writers and artists (except, of course, of the deals). Accordingly, my nearly annual role in the game was that of umpire.

Dan Rattiner, umpire-in-chief, and/or Leif Hope, would ask others to help, especially in calling balls and strikes in the latter part of the usually tense games. Dan was always accurate, even if some of the calls averaged out.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer was Mort Zuckerman’s house guest one weekend. Mort was the writers’ perennial starting pitcher; and he owns the NY Daily News, U.S. News and World Report, tall buildings in NY/ DC/Boston/Toronto and, presumably, also the game ball.

At Mort’s urging, Justice Breyer joined an umpire quartet including Dan, longtime tennis great Ham Richardson and me.

There was one particularly critical play at third, including an errant throw into the crowd. The number of allowable base runners to cross third and home was critical to the final score. The umpire’s convened; Ham cited the rules—and precedents and the decision was made.

Justice Breyer then opined that it was his first and only “unanimous decision.”

At other times, Leif invited public figures including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. There were moments of high drama when autocratic and conservative Giuliani called balls and strikes on notoriously liberal Alec Baldwin, who nevertheless swung from the right side of the plate. For Giuliani, it was a rare moratorium in the political wars.

One game was especially memorable because of items auctioned for charity. My friend, Kurt Vonnegut, created a wonderful and whimsical poster for the game. I bought it at auction and the Vonnegut pleasures now come from both reading and viewing.

It’s much more than a (usually chaotic) celebrity baseball game for charity.”

Benito Vilá

My first encounter with “the game” came through an old photo of a group of artists playing softball one summer, their names rounding out a line up much more suited to MoMA than Cooperstown.

One August afternoon years later, I joined “some guys” playing in the park and was asked by one of them, Leif Hope, if I was a writer or an artist. I told him I was both, being a writer and having run a design firm. He asked me to come play the next day as an artist.

When I showed up, some of the artists, who I played with in a league in Manhattan, perhaps thinking I might somehow cut into their playing time or perhaps having a preference for hitting my pitching, complained that I was really a writer.

In essence, I was traded before the game, and I became known, officially, as a Writer.

One year, while pitching to Alec Baldwin in the pre-game (which is my favorite part of the festivities – everything is so much more relaxed than it is during the game), I overheard a reporter ask Alec how often he plays. He said, “Once a year.” Coming in to collect balls, I asked, out of reporter ear-shot, “How often do you think about the game?” Alec countered, quietly, “Every day.” And there’s plenty to think about — what happens on the field and what goes on off the field.

Having a presidential candidate for an umpire is always fun, especially when a certain Artist flips the candidate the finger inconspicuously, probably as much for his politics as for the call he missed, the media and the secret service not all attune to the game within the game that at times may not be as “nice” as it looks from the outside.