The Real Iron Man: Ernie Tyler

BALTIMORE - Fans of the Orioles see Ernie Tyler at every game. He plays a key role for the team, and it's one he's been doing for 47 years -- delivering baseballs to the umpires.

"I like it, and they don't even know I'm here," says Tyler, 83. "I'm under the radar, I guess. As long as I can keep doing it, I will -- or as long as they'll let me keep doing it."

Tyler first took the role as umpire's assistant in 1960. He has never missed a single game, taking the field at Memorial Stadium and now Camden Yards, in more than 3,700 consecutive games, putting him more than 1,000 games ahead of Cal 'Iron Man' Ripken, Jr.

Tyler's job starts long before the umpires and players step on the field.

"The first thing I do when I leave the house at 10 in the morning is stop and do a little shopping, like bananas for the umpires."

When Tyler gets to the stadium, he carefully rubs mud on more than six-dozen brand new baseballs.

"The object in rubbing the baseballs is to make sure they're not slick, but if you make them too dark the hitter doesn't see the baseball."

Once he's finished that, Tyler helps the umpires prepare for the game.

"He does everything he possibly can for us," says veteran umpire Randy Marsh. "He does your laundry from the game before. He has food for you before the game. He has stuff for you after the game. It's all done. Ernie's got it taken care of."

Tyler also is a detail man. He even polishes and shines the umpires' shoes.

"I don't like those guys to go out on the field looking bad," Tyler says.

When the game begins, Tyler takes his position near the dugout, ready to deliver -- or retrieve -- baseballs, sometimes running faster than the players to get to them.

"A foul ball will roll 10 feet away from a 25-year-old catcher, and they won't move. Ernie will trot out there and pick it up," says Orioles bullpen catcher Sammy Snider.

Tyler's sprinting has impressed umpires -- and sometimes alarmed them.

"Every time he brings the balls out, he runs out there," Marsh says. "I say, 'Ernie, take it easy.'"

Marsh says in the 26 years he's been visiting Baltimore, Tyler has given him clubhouse assistance in every single game.

"It'd be very odd to be there and not have him there," Marsh says. "God forbid, whenever that day comes it'll be awfully big shoes to fill for whoever comes in his place."

While Tyler has managed to raise 11 children, including two who work for the O's -- one managing the clubhouse and one running the visitor's clubhouse -- he's made no mention of retiring.

But he admits getting up every morning is getting harder.

"Once I get my feet on the floor and take a couple steps, everything loosens up. Then, when you get down here and see the grass, the whole world changes."

Tyler, a quiet, unassuming man, isn't preoccupied with his legacy, and he seems unaware of his importance to the team. He is aware of his own mortality; yet, plans to keep doing his job game after game.

"Now when I really think about it, it's sort of scary. Where the heck have I been all my life? I missed a couple of births and a couple of graduations, and things like that. Well, the kids understood -- always have, always probably will. But like I tell them, 'Would you rather see me making a fool of myself running out on the field or in a nursing home on Sunday?'"

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)