I wish I had a picture that goes with this story:

Here is my story that aired last night on 790 KABC as part of the Lasorda at His Best series presented by Skechers:

A lot of people don’t know that I was a basketball referee in the Eastern Pro League before moving to California as a scout for the Dodgers. During one game I called a couple fouls against the big center who was making a lot of money. I kept calling fouls on him as he was pushing guys around in the key.

Each time I ran down court there was one guy sitting close to the bench hollering at me, and putting his hands around his neck and calling me a bum. Finally I blew the whistle for what seemed like a minute.

“One more word out of you and you’re gone,” I said to the heckler.

“Yeah,” he said. “Go ahead and throw me out!”

So I threw him out.

After the game was over I was coming out of the dressing room and some lady confronted me. She told me she was the guy’s wife and that I never should have thrown him out because he owned that team.

“What’s that got to do with it?” I asked.

She turned around and kicked me right in the shin. I’ve never hit a woman, nor will I ever, but at that moment I wish her husband were there too….