When Paul Emmel returns to the diamond, he’ll have gained an inch of height. And a furlong of serenity.
“I’m 6-foot-3 now, even though they listed me at 6-2,” the longtime Major League Baseball umpire and Castle Rock resident laughed. “I had to grow an inch of bone back.”
Emmel underwent surgery last October to correct a bow-legged gait. Osteotomy. The docs sawed away at his tibia, or shin bone, in order to relieve pressure on the knee joint. Three decades of squatting behind home plate, popping up and down, are murder on cartilage.
“I’ve got the legs of a 20-year-old again,” the 51-year-old ump cracked.