Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992 TAG: 9203060334
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
They enjoy from here a pleasant and unscented view of the Tech dairy farm across the way, the round-topped silos reflecting the low-hung winter sun.
And, yes, on the field below the Hammering Hokies are playing the Western Carolina Catamounts.
This is baseball, the finest spectator sport known, the logical leisure activity for the slothful body and catatonic mind of the lazy American worker. There are no ticking clocks, no timeouts, no referees' whistles.
So slowly does the action unfold, to the extent it does at all, that the casual - even the comatose - baseball fan can keep abreast of the game while simultaneously studying for the upcoming thermodynamics exam.
And yet, behind the right-field fence a solitary figure is perpetually moving - hustling out of view, then returning to watch, then striding off, then returning. To exert this much energy during a baseball game is blasphemous.
Who is this man, so out of sync with the national pastime? Why won't this man stand still?
Craig Tomino has the job from hell.
Before last football season began, Virginia Tech installed a new scoreboard in Lane Stadium. Showing the sort of land-grant thrift we taxpayers too rarely applaud, Tech workers toted the old electronic message board across the street to English Field, where it might live out its life keeping baseball fans informed.
Tech opened its home baseball season Monday. The message board was functional, but wasn't yet hooked up to a computer that would tell it which message to flash, or when.
Enter Craig Tomino. He's got a folding card table set up behind the scoreboard. A computer terminal sits on the table, and a wire runs directly from the computer to the message board.
Every time a batter is retired, Tomino hustles to his computer terminal and types in the name of the next batter, his position, his uniform number and his batting average. Fans sitting on the grassy knoll can look up from their thermodynamics texts and see who is batting, thanks to Tomino's Herculean effort. Most fans, because this is baseball, do not care much about who is batting, let alone who is playing or what nation they might be in.
"It's not too bad," says Tomino. A voice barks at him over a two-way radio: "It's number 27. NUMBER 27! Joey Cox. Right fielder!"
"OK, OK," mutters Tomino, and he trudges back to his computer to change the words on the message board.
Tomino is pursuing a master's degree in sports management. He works with the athletic department's facilities management crew.
He's a part-time celebrity, too - the host of Sports Authorities, the every-other-Thursday sports talk show on VTTV, the campus TV station.
Standing out in right field with the sun setting, there is no celebrity for Tomino.
Twenty-seven outs for the Hokies; 27 outs for the Catamounts. Dozens of trips to the keyboard for Tomino. Don't you just know - Tomino's luck - the game goes 11 innings.
They played a doubleheader with Howard University Thursday; another game was scheduled this afternoon.
Tomino figured to work them all.
Spring break, next week, the Hokies will be playing ball in Georgia. While they're away, the message board at English Field is supposed to be hooked up to a computer terminal in the press box atop the concrete stadiumette.
Craig Tomino will be able to sit down. He can watch baseball the way it was meant to be watched - with a thermodynamics textbook on his lap.
by CNB