It’s a hit

Everybody in town seems to know Chris Healy in his role as spokesman for the Department of Wildlife. Often, it seems his video and stories of the wildlife and fishing in Nevada are the only thing that saves morning television from getting kicked down to the minor leagues. I caught up with him at the gym. He claims this is his first locker room interview, so it seemed only appropriate to talk to him about his role as a community baseball umpire.

Tell me a little about yourself.

I was born and raised in Reno, not too far away. I have a joke. I work at the Department of Wildlife at 1100 Valley Road, less than a mile from the neighborhood where I grew up. I tell people I haven’t gone very far in life.

So you’re not only an official with the Department of Wildlife, but you’re also a baseball umpire. Right? So how did this come about?

The first remembrance I have of ever umpiring anything was a kickball game at St. Thomas Aquinas school, on the St. Thomas Aquinas school lot. It was about fifth grade. But my first real formal one was a little league game when I was a senior in high school at Bishop Manogue. That was 38 years ago. It was the first time I was ever good at something on the baseball field. And it was meant for me.

What grades, levels do you do?

Well, I concentrate on high school baseball now. I’ve done that for … well, I started high school baseball 36 years ago. And then during the summer time, I do high school age and maybe a little bit older. We have a multitude of summer baseball [leagues] that go all the way from Memorial Day into mid-July. We have a long season with a lot of games and some high quality players, so it’s quite an avocation.

You’ve also umped for the Aces on occasion.

A couple of years back, they needed a replacement umpire because somebody was hurt. They gave me a call. We have a list of guys that we consider good enough to go out and work that level if they need a replacement. Fortunately for me, I got a chance to go out and do four games, and it was a lot of fun.

Are you still doing that?

I’m on the list. It was kind of a perfect storm of things that happened. We had a major league umpire come down on a rehabilitation assignment, and they needed a four-man crew, and at the same time, the third man on the regular crew got hurt—a concussion—and so they needed a replacement so I got the call, and then spent four days chasing what was once my main goal in life … to be a major league umpire.

Oh, that’s beautiful.

It was a lot of fun.

So as a hometown boy, how do you get out there and not feel a little biased?

I am to the point now where I’m literally umpiring the sons of the players that I first started umpiring. And some are probably pushing some grandsons towards us. [I] know everybody, and fortunately for me, I’ve had such positive experience with most of them that I don’t have that many problems. I really like the coaches, because I know how hard they work, and I like the kids and players, so I have a pretty positive attitude. But that doesn’t mean I can’t ratchet it up and take control if I have to, but for the most part, it’s such a love of the game, and it truly is unbelievable that I actually get paid to go out and do that. We don’t get paid a lot, but it’s really fun.

So would you rather talk about baseball or bears?

I would talk about baseball any time.