Former President Bill Clinton’s surprise appearance as a celebrity umpire at the annual Artists and Writers softball game in East Hampton almost played a decisive role in the game’s outcome.
The Artists snapped a three-game losing streak and defeated the Writers 10-8 in a seesaw battle during the annual charity softball game at historic Herrick Park.
During the top of the first, the Artists were rallying and had already scored two runs when Clinton at first appeared to signal that Zak Meers had stretched his triple into an inside-the-park home run.
But Writers catcher Walter Isaacson successfully argued that his dramatic sweep tag caught the runner on the back of his foot— prompting Clinton to reverse his call.
Later, Clinton told Isaacson that it was the second time he had weighed in with an opinion on Isaacson, and both times, Clinton said, he had ruled in favor of Isaacson. The first time? Clinton said he was on the advisory board for the Rhodes scholars from the Deep South when young Walter from New Orleans was applying — and he’d upvoted the application.
Benito Vila, pitcher for the Writers, said he thought Clinton was a “hitters’ umpire” because Vila walked one and Artists starting pitcher Walter Bernard issued two base-on-balls in the bottom of the first inning.
The game went back and forth until it was tied at the top of the seventh when CBS news anchor Chris Wragge led off for the Artists and walloped a prodigious home run to take the lead. They added three more in the eighth to extend the lead.
It turned out they needed every bit. The Writers mounted a ninth-inning comeback fueled by a two-run home run blast by “Toy Story” screenwriter Alec Sokolow, but it fell short with the tying run at the plate. Wragge was named MVP. “It was a great game — it wasn’t decided until the final out,” said Writers co-captain Ken Auletta at the after-game party at East Hampton hot spot Dopo la Spiaggia.
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