Brian Fuller has been a lifelong baseball fan and has found ways to be around the game.
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His coaching career ended in 2007 when he had an opportunity to work in high school administration.
Fuller took another path with baseball that year as he became an umpire.
On Wednesday, he received a call he has been waiting nearly two decades to receive.
“Ironically, I was in truancy court and I got the message about them needing an umpire,” said Fuller about a phone call about the Erie SeaWolves game. “I took a half day and came down. It was great. I’ve been looking forward to and hoping for this day for a long time and luckily I was close by.”
With only two umpires able to start the SeaWolves day game on May 27, phone calls were made to any qualified umpires nearby.
Fuller, 54, jumped at the chance and took the field in the fourth inning. If the adrenaline wasn’t already pumping, Fuller was suited up at the gate to the field during a pitching change in the top of the fourth inning but homeplate umpire Theo Arndt said for Fuller to take the field between innings.
Six batters went by as Fuller sat in the second row waiting for his dream to come true.
Once Anderson De Los Santos of Chesapeake was caught stealing third base, a call Fuller would have had to make in his first inning, Fuller took the field and caught up with Arndt.
“It was just another baseball game,” Fuller said with a smile. “It wasn’t bad at all.”
Fuller is closing in on two big milestones in the next two months as he turns 55 years old and he retires from his job as the Virtual Education Coordinator and Assistant Principal at JS Wilson. He is also the Cyber Principal for all of Millcreek School District.
Fuller has also spent time as the athletic director at McDowell High School in the past because of his love for athletics.
When he decided to start a career as an umpire, it was always the goal to get to professional baseball. This spring alone, Fuller has worked Division I, II and III baseball games and recently umped the District 10 Class 2A championship between Mercyhurst Prep and Saegertown.
Fuller proved he can handle the pressure of a professional baseball game on Wednesday on a field where thousands of baseball players have also pursued their dreams.
Contact Tom Reisenweber at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNreisenweber.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Fuller lives his dream by making his Double-A debut as an umpire