Minn. man assesses properties by day, balls and strikes by night
PATRICK B. ANDERSON, Winona Daily News
HOUSTON, Minn. (AP) — The game was serious from the outset. Red jerseys filled both dugouts. Some players stood, clinging to the fence. Others hunched forward on the bench, watching the field.
A chorus of chants and encouragement surrounded home plate from both sides.
Behind the plate stood a masked man, crouched forward and wearing long, wide-legged pants and a polo shirt tucked in over chest pads.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
A softball bulleted past the plate into the catcher's glove. Steve Hacken -- the masked man -- thrust out his fist.
"Strike!" he bellowed.
Hacken, 56, is a veteran umpire and the head of the Winona Officials Association, part-time work he balances with his day job. Weekdays, before he pulls on his mask and pads, Hacken sifts through property data and crunches numbers as the Winona County Assessor.
On a recent day Hacken sat at his desk, tucked in a corner office at the Winona County Government Center, and flipped through a game calendar.
Newspaper clippings hung behind him, showing Hacken clad in umpire gear, at work on the field.
Hacken has been an umpire for more than 30 years -- a timeline that predates his work with the county. He calls about five games a week and works about 100 nights a year. He calls not just softball games, but baseball, basketball and football games as well.
Hacken doesn't know what first drew him to sports, but the fascination has existed most of his life. He coached Little League at 16 and double-majored in college in physical education and mass communication.
"I thought my goal in life at that time was to be a sportswriter," he said.
His path to officiating came later. Hacken was working in Minnesota's Chisago County when he started calling games. Three years later, he was working district tournaments. Then state tournaments.
"When I started officiating, my goal was to be an OK high school official," he said. "I think that whatever I could have thought, it's been way more than that. I feel blessed."
When he moved to Winona in 1997, he found fertile ground for his expertise. Today he works for schools near Winona and also makes trips to Wisconsin and even Iowa if needed.
He takes any game he can, relishing the chance to get outside after a long day in the office.
He's stayed with it, all three decades and counting, for the kids.
"He just understands that the kids love to play," said Michelle Anderson, the Caledonia/Spring Grove high school softball coach.
There are similarities between Hacken's dual incarnations. One of those, he said, is the need to look sharp. Come game time, Hacken trades in his necktie for carefully polished shoes and a spotless umpire outfit.
"If you look like you know what you're doing, maybe somebody will actually believe it," he joked.
Both jobs demand firm decision-making, and an ability to take control of difficult situations, Hacken said.
"Not every value that we set here at work people like," he said. "And frankly, on the ball field, not every call that a guy makes people like."
Check the strike counter. Flash the count. Crouch for the pitch. Make the call.
As the pitches came in at the game in Houston, Hacken fell into a rhythm.
Occasionally a play would interrupt the drumbeat, causing Hacken to rip off his mask and walk toward the action. As he gestured and pointed, he seemed a man in control.
"They're serious about it," he said of the players. "I think, as officials, we need to be serious about it.
"I take it pretty serious."
___
Information from: Winona Daily News
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
