Umpiring has been the story before. And it’s caused suspensions for outbursts from managers.

There have been other games with questionable ejections during the Revolution’s history.

None, however, could match what took place in 2007, in the first year York’s downtown ballpark opened.

With the ballpark still under construction, the clubhouses had yet to be built. Players changed in trailers on a dirt hill beyond the left field wall. So when York manager Chris Hoiles and outfielder Kaz Tanaka were ejected, the game had to be halted as Hoiles and Tanaka made the long walk to center field, awaiting a team employee to open the oversized gate.

Sidenote: Their ejections were also interesting in the fact Hoiles did not typically lose his temper, and Tanaka spoke almost no English.

The ejection of Tanaka meant the Revs did not have a full complement of outfielders. And when the game shifted to extra innings, York catcher Greg Brown finished the game in left field. He even wrangled down a pop fly despite what appeared to be his uneasiness in playing an unfamiliar position.

Winning has a way of lightening the mood, though.

Sitting outside the trailer watching the game from the big dirt pile beyond the left field wall, Hoiles sat next to Cannonball Charlie. When the Revs won, Charlie said Hoiles told him to fire the cannon — something that had not yet become a postgame tradition for victories.

And then there was Tanaka, who greeted Brown as he approached the trailer. Not saying any words, Tanaka pointed at Brown and then pantomimed a catcher sitting in a crouch while looking up to the sky for an imaginary pop fly. Brown couldn’t help but laugh.

Back when the Atlantic League had an uneven number of teams and needed an all-travel team to fill out the schedule, the Road Warriors seemingly showed up once a week. It might have just seemed that way because the games usually dragged, with the Road Warriors typically being overmatched by most every team in the league.

And with no home stadium, the Road Dogs always seemed to be in town.

This year will have a similar feel since York and Lancaster will meet a record 28 times.

Good grief, who needs to see that?

The War of the Roses will feel like the Hundred Years’ War.

There is something to be said for too much of a good thing.

We are two weeks into a 140-game schedule and York and Lancaster have already met seven times. Seven! In a typical year with a balanced schedule the two teams would meet 20 times. So this change adds another week of games between the two clubs.

No person should have to sit through that many Butch Hobson pitching changes unless they are a Barnstormers’ season-ticket holder.

All joking aside, York and Lancaster have a good rivalry. They played perhaps the league’s best playoff series during the last decade, needing five games and extra innings to decide a victor in 2011. But another eight games doesn’t add to a rivalry. It just waters it down. It’s no longer a special time when these two teams meet.

Never mind the sheer boredom fans might be experiencing in this series come August, the schedule also presents a problem in competitive edge.

Suppose Lancaster and York are the two best clubs in the league. They will have to face the best team in the league more than any other squad.

And if you don’t think that’s a big deal, what happens if one of those teams miss the playoffs by one game?

There is a real chance, if both teams are equally matched, the 28-game series could cause both teams to miss the playoffs.

Or switch it around, what if one of these teams ends up being the worst team in the league? Now all of a sudden, York or Lancaster could have a leg up on every other team for one of those four playoff spots. Think the rest of the league is going to like the fact one team could walk into the playoffs because it played a month’s worth of games against the worst product on the field?

Now an unbalanced schedule could be a good thing. I actually like the idea, if its broken down by division. The Long Island Ducks came into town in 2011 and all but eliminated York from the first half title in the penultimate series of the first half. That shouldn’t happen. The end of each half should be filled with games against divisional opponents. If playoff spots are determined by divisional leaders, then divisional foes should face off at the end of each half.

So in that sense, an unbalanced schedule works.

But that’s not what is going on this year. York plays each team a different amount of times. It plays division foes Lancaster (28 times), Southern Maryland (24) and Sugar Land (20). Yet it hooks up with Liberty-Division member Somerset 21 times.

“We’re going to get a lot of games between three teams,” Revolution manager Mark Mason said.

“I’m not going to say I dislike it, I will say I don’t understand it. I do understand, I think, that it’s about maybe budgets and local rivalries. Because there is only one team in Texas, I’m not really sure why we’re unbalanced now.”

Perhaps this is the first year for the unbalanced schedule, perhaps its just a test run. And all this will change when the league finds a second team in Texas. At least we can hope that’s what’s going to happen.

Then he pitched against the Barnstormers in Lancaster’s home opener, dealing with a delay at the start for a ring ceremony and some more crummy weather.

But the one thing that we couldn’t see him struggling with was a kink in his neck. He woke up with a sore neck before his first start in Lancaster. But in his third start of the year, he finally was able to show flashes of what he can do Thursday. Hill (1-1) picked up the win as York earned a 5-2 victory to complete its first sweep in Lancaster in club history.

He held Lancaster to two runs on six hits through five innings, limiting the damage to a two-run second inning where he faced seven hitters.

At one point, pitching coach Paul Fletcher came out to talk to him.

“He tried to slow me down because mechanically I was out of whack,” Hill said.

Hill knew he was rushing to the plate, which causes him to lose some of his command. And while he tried to correct it in-game, he knows with a full schedule of bullpens before his next start he could finally be on track.

“If we had a full spring training, I would have worked those kinks out,” Hill said.

He retired four in a row before Lancaster’s second-inning rally. Then he retired five in a row through the third and fourth. He’s not on the 27 2/3 scoreless run he had for York back in 2012, but their are glimpses he could be improving.

So he did a drill the team sometimes does when it’s scuffling at the plate.

Mason sits 20 feet in front of the plate on a folding chair. An L-screen protects him from line drives, and he throws the ball around the plate.

He mixes inside and outside pitches, trying to get hitters to stay back and hit whatever he gives them. So if he throws the ball away, hitters should hit it opposite-field. If the ball rides inside, they should turn on it.

No hitter exhibited why that’s a big deal better than Luis De La Cruz, who went 3-for-4 with a homer and a double and four RBIs in York’s 6-1 victory at Lancaster. He went opposite-field on the fourth-inning double, then he turned on a pitch for his two-run shot in the sixth. He added an RBI single in the eighth, hitting a ball between the shortstop and third baseman.

Read about the game here.

RHP Shawn Hill

RHP Shawn Hill, 33
Born in Mississauga, Ontario
Bats right, throws right
Hill set a Revs record with a 27 ⅔-inning scoreless streak in 2012. That year, he earned a contract with the Blue Jays and finished the season in the Majors, earning a win in relief against the Yankees in his lone appearance. He is one of four native Canadians to play for both the Blue Jays and Expos.

C Salvador Paniagua

C Salvador Paniagua, 32
Born in San Juan, Dominican Republic
Bats right, throws right
Entering his fifth season with the Revs, he has the second longest tenure on the Revs roster behind only Corey Thurman.

1B Andres Perez

Andres Perez, 30
Born in New York City
Bats right, throws right
He’s one of only two players in Revs history to hit for the cycle in a game. He ranks in the career top five in franchise history in hits, home runs, doubles, extra-base hits and RBIs.

2B Eric Patterson

2B Eric Patterson, 32
Born in Tallahassee, Florida
Bats left, throws right
The MLB veteran of the Cubs, A’s, Red Sox and Padres broke the Atlantic League triples record last season with 17.

SS Wilson Valdez

SS Wilson Valdez, 36
Born in Nizao, Dominican Republic
Bats right, throws right
He earned a win on the mound for the Phillies in a 19-inning game in 2011, when he became the first in the majors since Babe Ruth in 1921 to start a game in the field then earn the win as a pitcher.

3B Bryan Pounds

3B Bryan Pounds, 29
Born in Houston
Bats right, throws right
An Atlantic League All-Star last season with Camden, Pounds spent his first five season in the Tigers organization, reaching Triple-A Toledo. Click here to read more about how Pounds adds punch to the Revs lineup

LF Brandon Jones

LF Brandon Jones, 31
Born in Panama City, Florida
Bats left, throws right
He reached the Majors with the Braves in 2007-09, and he played in the Atlantic League with Lancaster in 2011.

CF Brandon Boggs

CF Brandon Boggs, 32
Born in St. Louis
Bats switch, throws right
A travel ball teammate and college roommate of Eric Patterson, Boggs played in the MLB for the Rangers and Brewers in 2008-2011. Last season out of Bridgeport, he earned a contract with Atlanta and spent the year at Triple-A Gwinnett.

RF Desmond Henry

RF Desmond Henry, 21
Born in Los Angeles
Bats right, throws right
Henry is the youngest player on the roster. The speedy outfielder was a fourth-round pick of the Rangers out of Centennial High School in Compton, Calif., in 2011. Click here to read about how Henry survived growing up in Compton, and the coach who took him under his wing

DH Johan Limonta

DH Johan Limonta, 32
Born in Havana, Cuba
Bats left, throws left
He defected from Cuba, coming to America on a boat with 35 other people and five other ballplayers. The fourth-year Revs veteran signed with Seattle in 2006 and reached Triple-A in 2011 and 2012.

Starting rotation
RHP Shawn Hill, 33
RHP Anthony Lerew, 32
LHP Logan Williamson, 30
LHP Rommie Lewis, 32
RHP Mike McClendon, 30
RHP Corey Thurman, 36

Bullpen
RHP Matt Neil, 28
RHP Ian Durham, 26
RHP Mike DeMark, 31
RHP Josh Judy, 29
RHP Stephen Penney, 28
RHP Beau Vaughan, 33
LHP Joe Harris, 28
RHP Kyle Heckathorn, 26
LHP Edward Paredes, 28
LHP Shawn Teufel, 28

Infield reserves
C Luis De La Cruz, 25, bats right, throws right
C Alberto Espinosa, 28, bats switch, throws right

The last time a lot of fans saw York Revolution outfielder Sean Smith, he was on crutches or displayed in clips on ESPN hopping around the bases on one leg after he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee after hitting a playoff home run. Smith returned with the Revs this season and eyes a possible return to the field in May.

Outfielder Desmond Henry, 21, will start the season with the York Revolution. Catch a first glimpse of him here.

Bryan Pounds will be the opening-day third baseman for the Revs. (Chris Dunn — Daily Record Sunday News)

The bad news the York Revolution had expected, finally happened about 36 hours before the season opener: Travis Garcia was headed to the Mexican League. The Atlantic League veteran, known for mashing off-speed pitches and snaring blasts down the third base line wouldn’t start the season with the York Revolution.

In other years, this could have sent the team scrambling for a replacement.

“It would be a much bigger deal losing Travis if we didn’t have Pounds here,” Mason said. “It’s a big deal losing Travis, but we have an All-Star third baseman from this league last year.”

Asked what he liked about Pounds, Mason didn’t hold back.

“Everything,” he said. “Seriously. He’s a good hitter, he can hit for average and hit for power. He can play every single infield position and left field. And he plays the game extremely hard. Talented hitter, talented in the field and a good arm. I like everything about him, so I’m glad we were able to get him.”

For the whole story, click here.

Desmond Henry is the youngest player on the York Revolution’s spring training roster at 21. (Jim Seip — Daily Record/Sunday News)

At age 10, Desmond Henry had nowhere to go. His mother had been evicted from their place in Compton, Calif. She had found a cousin’s house with room for just one, but there was no room for one more little boy. The house was packed.

So Henry called his baseball coach. Even though Coach Gerald Pickens was staying at another person’s house, he welcomed in Henry.

“He had nowhere else to go,” Centennial High School coach Gerald Pickens said. “It should be a movie. … You’ve heard that Elton John song, the one where he sings, ‘Mars is no place to raise a kid?’ Well, Compton is no place to raise a kid.

“It can be depressing place. Last year I lost two kids. … Wrong place, wrong time,” Pickens said.

Bullets don’t decipher between the innocent and guilty. So two more young people died.

Located south of downtown Los Angeles, the city of Compton has been notorious for gang violence between the Bloods and Crips. It was the basis for the N.W.A. gangsta rap album, “Straight Outta Compton.”

“Whatever you can get your self into, I mean, if you’re a sports guys that’s what you want to stick to,” Henry said about growing up in Compton. “But the streets can take over if you hang around the wrong people.”

Henry leaned on Pickens for guidance.

“I didn’t have no father in the house,” Henry said. “He basically took me under his wing. He took care of me throughout high school and kept me focused to the point where I am now.”

Pickens was an inner-city coach that cared.

“It’s not just about baseball, it’s about kids,” Pickens said.

The Henry brothers posed on the first week of camp with the Revolution. Desmond Henry, left, is in his first camp with York. Darrell Henry, right, needs coffee, but he is back for his ninth season as the Revs play-by-play radio broadcaster. (Jim Seip — Daily Record/Sunday News)

Pickens likes to tell the scouts he encounters that he’s better at scouting than they are because he “knows the desires” of his young players. That’s something even big-league scouts can’t always decipher. And what he saw from Henry impressed him.

“I’m a very demanding coach,” Pickens said. “If I say I’m not going to accept any less than your best, I’m not going to accept any less until you meet your goal. The minute you do, I put another one out there and another one. I might have been overbearing at the time, but the love I had for the game wore off on him.”

Drafted by the Texas Rangers in the fourth round in 2011, Henry has struggled for playing time. He only played in 25 games in two years with the Rangers. Traded to the Royals in March 2013 to complete a previous trade, Henry spent two seasons with the Royals’ rookie league team. Released by the Royals in spring, Revolution manager Mark Mason made the somewhat unique decision to go after the 21-year-old. The Atlantic League is filled with former big-league veterans or players with time spent at Triple-A. Henry is something different.

For instance, there’s only one other player on the Revs spring training roster under the age of 25.

“I know he could run, he has speed,” Mason said. “His batting averages were never very good and his strikeout numbers were high, but … basically it was a gut feeling.

“We don’t get a lot of opportunities in the Atlantic League to develop a guy. Most of our guys have already been there. We’re more like tweaking guys here for the most part. But I thought it might be an opportunity to work with a guy with a ton of speed and a lot of tools. We wanted to see if he can fit in here or if he’s over-matched.”

If he can stick, if he can fit in and play the type of small ball — bunting, running, situational hitting — he has high potential. It could be a lot of work, but it could work out for everyone if he’s willing to put in the work. One of those other young, high-potential guys the Revs brought in was reliever Ian Thomas — who left York in 2012 with his first contract in affiliated baseball and made his major league debut with the Braves last season.

“There’s a lot to learn from some of the other guys,” Henry said.

A photographer and I had arrived two days before. In town to cover the York Revolution’s first practices and scrimmages during Atlantic League spring training, we had stopped for breakfast. Our destination was the Detroit Tigers spring training facilities, where most of the Atlantic League teams had broken camp that week as they prepared for the start of the regular season.

Keith Lupton, sitting at a table by himself, waved us down.

Always friendly. Always available to talk. He told us how emotional the last 24 hours had been.

One of the key front office executives with the ownership group that planted teams in Lancaster, York and Southern Maryland. He had been a part of the group working to bring minor league baseball back to York for about a decade. The day before, he had watched the York Revolution finally take the field. Even though he had just built a league championship squad with Lancaster manager Tom Herr the year before, he couldn’t have been happier to see another team on the diamond.

It was the beginning of a team, something he knew worlds about.

“There were periods of doubt,” said Lupton at the time, then serving as the executive vice president of Opening Day Partners. “We had so many obstructions, but when you’re starting a new club you have to have patience.

“The cities that give up don’t get teams. Our key was simply having patience.”

Lupton couldn’t wait until June see the York open its new park. So he traveled to Lakeland to watch the Revolution in spring training.

First practices. First scrimmage. First time on the field.

He sat near the dugout when York took the field for its first preseason scrimmage.

“It’s like waiting nine months for a baby to arrive,” Lupton said. “Only in this case, we waited years.

“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

So we sat there eating breakfast, and he talked about his background. He explained how he had survived a kidney transplant, joking how he was ruining our breakfast. He explained how he had a background in radio … and scouting … and eventually signing players. What was supposed to be a 10-minute stop turned into a half hour, but he gave us quotes for a story and some insight.

Lupton, 73, died in Dover, Delaware, Sunday.

In a business where executives tend to be guarded, Lupton never was.

Most nights, Keith Lupton sat in the back row of the press box. He knew everybody. And everybody knew him.

He turned a back seat in Clipper Magazine Stadium into the best seat in the house. Sit down beside him and meet somebody new.

Lupton knew who the scouts liked, and he knew what players were headed back to affiliated baseball and why. He knew baseball, and he knew how the Atlantic League worked.

It came from years of in-the-trenches work.

Lupton owned the Winchester Royals in the Valley Baseball League from 1979-81. The Royals won three consecutive league championships, and he had 35 players signed by major league organizations.

The way he told it, he thought he knew what it took to find ballplayers. So he sold the Royals and offered his services to major league organizations. How could they refuse?

Well, 23 major league clubs sent him rejection letters. Two more never responded. The Yankees eventually hired him to scout the mid-Atlantic region, but some days, Lupton figured, he didn’t come within 100 miles of a prospect.

He moved on — taking a job scouting for minor-league teams, including the Hagerstown Suns. He survived a couple ownership changes in Hagerstown. A group including Peter Kirk bought the Suns in 1986, and Lupton and Kirk developed a decades-long partnership with Maryland Baseball, its partner company, Keystone Baseball and, eventually, Opening Day Partners.

Lupton was usually the first man in the building. In what would become his real talent, he became the first general manager for the Frederick Keys from 1989 through 1993. He moved on to the same position in Bowie in 1993. And moved yet again when the Delmarva Shorebirds opened shop in 1996. At each stop, each league honored him as General Manager of the Year.

When Opening Day Partners decided to restructure their baseball operations, dissolving the company that had run the player procurement process for all their teams after 2007, Lupton returned to run baseball operations for the Barnstormers from 2008-10. He would fill in once again when ODP was in a pinch to hire a general manager to run the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in 2012. Lupton returned as a general manager — once again — and won league honors as General Manager of the Year.

He was there for the big stuff, hiring Jon Danos — the man who would eventually become president of ODP — pulling out the resume of the recent grad who had submitted a picture of himself in front of a sports car. And Lupton sweated the little stuff, sitting through some losing seasons at Lancaster while trying to figure out how to improve a roster.

But he was also personable, friendly and a joy to be around. Each time I walked in the Lancaster Barnstormers press box where he often watched games, I could count on hearing Lupton booming out, “Jim-my!”

He was one of those people who always managed to make those around him smile.