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D.D. McDonald
D.D. McDonald was born and raised into a family of baseball lovers and began his career at the age of five. Though he loved the sport with a passion, he was a lousy hitter until re...view moreD.D. McDonald was born and raised into a family of baseball lovers and began his career at the age of five. Though he loved the sport with a passion, he was a lousy hitter until reaching the ripe old age of thirteen. One of the fathers of one of the other kids, a former pro ballplayer himself, showed him how to keep his right side high through the swing, and things pretty much took off from there.
He was an all-state catcher in high school and was drafted in the Major League players draft during his senior year in the early ’70s, but chose to play college baseball instead. Then before player free agency became a reality, a college degree was worth far more than the Major League minimum of $25,000 a year.
He was drafted once more, this time in the 3rd round of his senior collegiate season, and was assigned to long season Class “A” in 1975 reaching “AAA” in 1976.
A serious case of “bus trip burnout” ended his playing career at the end of the ’76 season, but in 1978 he realized how much he missed the game, and his renewed desire to return to baseball led him to begin umpiring kids’ games. While balancing a business career with calling balls and strikes, he moved up rapidly and began working high school, junior college, and eventually college ball in just his second year.
Ultimately, after more than fifty years of squatting behind home plate, thirty of them wearing a “blue suit” and twenty more catching, his worn-out knees compelled his retirement in 2010.
Mr. McDonald is currently retired and living with his wonderful wife and cat in a log cabin in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest.view less