IDAHO FALLS — While the Glacier Range Riders and Idaho Falls Chukars were engaged in a classic pitchers’ duel Tuesday night, only two people at Melaleuca Field saw less action than Chukar scoreboard operator Jordan Beckstead.
It happens once or twice per season in Major League Baseball — the national anthem standoff.
How it works is, two players — one from each team — will stand with their teammates for the playing of the national anthem pre-game. But after the anthem, when everyone else heads back to their dugout or bullpen, the two players will remain, hat over heart, staring down either the flag or the opposing standoff participant.
Usually, the standoff will last a couple of innings before one or both of the players finally call it quits. But Tuesday night, Glacier’s Luke Cooper and Idaho Falls’ Steven Ordorica were both fully committed.
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Chukar manager Troy Percival, a relief pitcher who spent 14 seasons in the Big Leagues, said after the game that he became aware of the standoff in the second inning, and considered calling it off.
“I was gonna put a stop to it, but I decided, ‘You know what, they’re not hurting anything, let them do their thing,’” the skipper said.
He continued, adding that he believed Glacier manager Todd Pratt, a former catcher who also spent 14 years in the Majors, got as much of “a kick out of it” as he did.
Percival said he had never seen a standoff last so long.
As the evening turned to night, and the winds, which were ever-present, intensified, Cooper was called in to pitch in relief. But his position in the standoff was filled by a jacket-wearing teammate. After Cooper finished his four-out appearance — in which he allowed one Chukar run to score — he returned to his perch in the visiting bullpen.
And when the final out was recorded in Glacier’s 5-3 win, a little over three hours after the national anthem, players began to clear the field. But Cooper and Ordorica stood their ground, neither willing to accept defeat.
The standoff finally came to an end — well after the game did — when the two relievers gave a tip of the cap to the other and made their way to their respective clubhouses.
Cooper and his Range Riders will face Ordorica and the Chukars in game two of the six-game set Wednesday night.
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