He Loved Taking Charge in Dodger Stadium

There was Joe Lastition, 55, calling balls and strikes behind the plate at Dodger Stadium. Never mind that it was a softball game. A game is a game and Dodger Stadium is Dodger Stadium.

“That will be a day I will never forget,” said the 25-year veteran of officiating for baseball, basketball and football in Orange County high schools and colleges. “That night I was introduced to the 45,000 people there, including my family.”

It was part of the recent “Think Blue Week” at Dodger Stadium where people were living out their baseball fantasies.

A confirmed jock who feels sports is a positive outlet for boys and girls, Lastition was selected for the umpiring role after his son Chris, 23, wrote the winning letter about his father to the Dodgers.

Thousands of entries were submitted.

“It was terrific just to be on the field of a major league team,” said the La Habra father of five children, who lettered in basketball, baseball and football and ran track during his high school days in Ohio.

His three daughters and two sons are all active in sports.

No longer officiating, Lastition said he’s now a spectator, especially for his two grandchildren who are also sports-oriented.

But there are still stories to tell of his years of umpiring, including a critical baseball game in which a foul ball crashed into his face mask, breaking his glasses.

“I took off my mask and the glasses were in two pieces, but I put them on and covered them with the mask,” he said. “I never took the mask off during the game.

“After the game the catchers and managers of both teams told me I called a helluva game,” he recalled.

Although willing to talk at great length about his officiating escapades, Lastition felt more at ease relating the value of sports and his role in developing young athletes.

“I always felt that with five kids, if I could keep their minds clear to the good parts of life through sports, it would give them less time to dwell on things that could get them in trouble,” said the owner of California Appraisal and Adjusting Inc. in La Habra.

That thinking worked.

“They are all fine children,” he said. “I feel that if a kid goes out for sports, nine times out of 10 it keeps him so active he doesn’t have time to get in trouble.”

Besides officiating, which Lastition said gave him the opportunity to stay active in sports, he also coached Little League, Pop Warner football, soccer and girls softball.

He likes to talk about the times he officiated at Sunny Hills High School in La Habra where Dodger catcher Gary Carter played ball.

“I always gave him advice and hints on how to be a better catcher,” said Lastition, a catcher during his sandlot ball-playing days. “I remember telling him: ‘Gary, you are going to make something out of yourself. You are one helluva catcher.’ ”

Lastition said he has regrets about some of today’s high school umpires.

“The first games I umpired I didn’t even know what I was going to get paid,” he said. “I took pride in what I was doing, but these days I think too many officials are doing it strictly for the money. It’s like holding a second job.”

Just how good an umpire was Lastition?

“I figured on a scale of 10, I was a 10,” he said.