Page 2 November 12, 2020 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Water Tank Light Crew Rises to the Occasion
By Rob McCarthy
There’s an extra-special glow around El
Segundo these days, but it only comes out
after dark. The water tower atop Lomita Street
appears Halloween orange each night, thanks
to a ring of colored spotlights installed by a
skeleton crew of city employees. The lighting
project debuted six weeks ago, and it’s not
likely to go away anytime soon.
With Halloween in the rear-view mirror, city
officials plan to illuminate the 200,000-gallon
Derryl Cousins from front page
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Derryl Cousins had run-ins with some of baseball’s elite managers including Mike Scioscia of the California Angels.
water tank through the rest of the year.
The beam team from the Public Works
Department spent two weeks in September
installing LED lights on the railing that circles
the tank. However, the floodlights needed
color correcting to deal with a technical
challenge that Anthony Esparza and his two
tower climbers - Marco Becerra and Carlos
Aguilar - had to solve. How do you make
a blue tank appear as orange?
They eventually got the color effect they
wanted, and the crew let their experiment go
live on October 1. Esparza drew the assignment
because he’s the supervisor of the city
Water Division. He gives the credit for the
technical achievement to the hands-on guys
in his crew who did the installation, wiring,
and equipment setup. It was a top priority
with Public Works Director Elias Sassoon,
who praised the crew’s successful efforts a
week before El Segundo residents had any
idea what was coming.
“I think the residents will be pleasantly
surprised big time,” the director wrote on
September 23 to communicate the beam
team’s progress on turning the tower orange.
Before the night of October 1, the city’s
communication team directed eyes on the
hilltop water tank and teased that a special
after-dark event would be happening. When
the remote-controlled spotlights came to life,
the 155-foot high landmark was ready for its
closeup. As the public works director had
predicted, social media lit up with comments
of thanks and attaboys for the people at the
city who sensed the community needed this.
“They wanted to do something special this
year for Halloween,” Esparza said, recalling
first a conversation with his boss and then
with Ron Fajardo, who oversees maintenance
See Water Tank, page 7
the Canadian League, and finished playing
with the Reno Silver Sox, an affiliate of
the Cleveland Indians organization, of the
California League.
After his release, Cousins embarked on a new
career, umpiring. He was considered one of the
top umpires at each level. Starting in the Midwest
League in 1973, Cousins worked his way
through the low minors. He and his umpiring
partner, future American League umpire Vic
Voltaggio, were considered the best among
Midwest League umpires. They repeated that
honor with the Carolina League in 1974. Cousins
made his way to the Pacific Coast League in 1976
and worked three seasons at the Triple-A level.
Cousins never regretted his decision to get
into umpiring, but he knew it was an uphill
battle to get to the major leagues. “There is
only one out of every 200 who attend umpiring
school who get a job. There are only 150 jobs
in all of minor-league ball,” he once said. In
the late 1970s, he said, “In the majors, there
will only be eight jobs open in the next eight
years as a few umpires reach retirement age.”
He got an unexpected chance to umpire at
the Major League level ahead of schedule.
At the start of the 1979 season, 50 of the
52 American and National League umpires
started the season on strike. Major League
Baseball was forced to find minor-league and
amateur umpires to fill out the ranks. Because
he was considered one of the top umpires in
the minor leagues, Cousins was one of those
minor-leaguer umpires who found himself a
crew chief for the amateur umpires.
Cousins worked his first of 4496 Major
League games on April 6, 1979. “I was on the
plate for a game at Oakland-Alameda County
Stadium. I don’t remember being intimidated
or anything going wrong; I just remembered
thinking, I made it.”
The umpires’ strike was eventually settled,
and Cousins was one of the few minor league
umpires who were given jobs at the Major
League level. It did come with a small price
when the striking umpires turned their backs
on Cousins and the other few umpires. “They
wouldn’t talk to me off the field but were supportive
between the lines, and really that’s all
that mattered,” Cousins once told me.
Cousins was one of the most consistent
ball/ strike umpires over his 34-year career.
He was known as a pitcher’s umpire, probably
because of his experience as a catcher.
His brother Craig said, “If you were a hitter,
you’d better be ready to swing it when Derryl
was behind the plate.”
Cousins had a unique way to bark out a strike.
It was a deep ‘steeeeeerike’ that fans heard from
the second deck of the stadium. There was no
mistaking his call, and it wasn’t to be noticed
but rather to show a strike call empathically. It
was rumored that Leslie Nielsen’s character in
the movie, ‘Naked Gun’, where Nielsen plays
an umpire, during one scene, used Cousins as
his motivation.
Craig shared a story his brother Derryl told
him. “In one of Derryl’s first games, a veteran
star player commented on a pitch that was
called a strike. He said that as long as he’d
been playing, that pitch was never a strike.
Derryl turned to him and said it was his first
day, and that pitch was going to be a strike
from now on, so get used to it.”
Derryl never was intimidated by some of baseball’s
most prominent umpire-hating managers
or team owners. He got into a brief war of
words with New York Yankee team owner
George Steinbrenner. Atlanta Braves manager
Bobby Cox made it easy to eject with his
brash comments that even included bumping
Cousins on one occasion. He thought that New
York Yankee manager Billy Martin went out
of his way to be mean, and Baltimore Orioles
manager Earl Weaver would go nuts for little
or no reason to test the young umpire. Derryl
said that when he finally got to call a game
at Dodger Stadium, with Dodger manager
Tommy Lasorda in charge, it was entertaining
with Lasorda’s colorful language.
Craig said his brother was definitely a pitcher’s
umpire but did get teased about giving future
Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett the
close pitches. “I’m pretty sure George didn’t
need the help,” Craig said.
Cousins was being noticed and began to
be chosen for plum postseason assignments.
Starting in 1985, he worked the American
League Championship Series between the Royals
and Blue Jays. Cousins worked a total of
five Division Series (1997, 1999, 2002, 2005,
2007, seven League Championship Series
1985,1989,1995,2003 and ‘2006, three World
Series 1988, 1999, 2005 and three All-Star
Games 1987, 1998 and 2008.
Some of the notable games Cousins called
included being home plate umpire for Tom
Seaver’s 300th win at Yankee Stadium. He was
the third-base umpire for game one of the 1988
World Series when Kirk Gibson hit his epic
pinch-hit home run for the Dodgers. He was
the home plate umpire for the game between
the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego
Padres on August 4, 2007. In the top of the
second inning at San Diego, Barry Bonds of the
Giants hit his 755th career home run off Clay
Hensley, tying Hank Aaron for first all-time. He
was the crew chief for an exhibition game at
the Los Angeles Coliseum on March 29, 2008,
where 115,300 people saw the Dodgers and
Boston Red Sox played a game celebrating the
Dodgers 50th Anniversary in Los Angeles. He
served as the second base umpire in the final
game at the old Yankee Stadium on September
21, 2008, and worked the Opening Day game
at the new Yankee Stadium on April 16, 2009.
Cousins was the first base umpire when Oakland
Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden threw the
19th perfect game in MLB history on May
9, 2010. He worked as the third base umpire
when Derek Jeter, of the New York Yankees,
attained his 3000th career hit against the Tampa
Bay Rays. In the 2009 World Baseball Classic,
he was the crew chief for the semi-finals and
finals held at Dodger Stadium. In all Derryl
Cousins umpired 4496 MLB games placing
him ninth all-time.
One of Derryl’s sons, Cas, has started his
umpiring career following in his father’s
footsteps. He was an All-South Bay catcher,
All-Pioneer League selection, and led the
Eagles to a first-place finish, all as his dad did.
He started his professional umpiring career a
season ago officiating in the Arizona League.
Derryl Cousins was inducted into the
El Camino Hall of Fame in 2004 and into the
El Segundo High School Hall of Fame in 2011.
He is survived by his brothers Wayne and Craig,
wife Shawna, and five children, including Cas,
Cole, Erica, Jane, and Daryl-Lynn.
A memorial service is planned for next
spring. •
A skeleton crew from the Public Works Department made the nightly lighting of the water tower for Halloween possible. Credit:
El Segundo Public Works Department.