Baseball is full of simple rules. Hit a fair ball over the outfield fence and you earn a home run. That wasn’t always the practice, however, in Drain. When I began umpiring high school baseball in 1980, a ball over the fence was either a home run, triple or double. The North Douglas Warriors played on a short field at the elementary school. The outfield fence was well short of the 300-foot standard down the foul lines and 350 feet in center field. Wooden stakes placed at the top of the fence marked the boundaries. Balls to center field remained …













