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FOXBORO -- It was a chilly Thursday evening, and in Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the eighth consecutive time.

Down at Booth Playground - not exactly the same kind of park, but the baseball is just as passion-fueled - the rivalry's tension was beginning to boil over.

During a lengthy timeout, umpire Greg Krysko was dusting off home plate when the batter, a 13-year-old in the Foxboro Youth Baseball Association's Babe Ruth League, started talking trash about the Yankees' recent woes.

Krysko just smiled. He knew the kid from his stint as a youth-league football coach, and thus the kid knew Krysko was a die-hard Yankees fan.

But the ump, who has been calling games for 10 years, wasn't going to take the jab quietly. "You really think that's a good idea," Krysko said playfully, patting the kid on the back, "with you up to bat and your team down by a run?"

Of course, it was all in good fun, what summer youth-league baseball is all about - and not just for the kids.

Although Krysko, a Foxboro native, loves being an ump now, he had to be convinced to do it 10 years ago. Back then, because of a lack of umpires, little league coaches had to call games, too.

Krysko, who coached his son's team, started umpiring out of necessity.

He liked it - even with the occasional overbearing coach or parent - and continued, rising through the ranks from little league to Babe Ruth League to high school, where he works now.

He fills in every once in a while for the lower levels, but the higher skill level in high school makes the games more fun to watch.

What keeps him coming back?

It's not the money. Both Krysko and his partner, Pete Gagne of Attleboro, do it as a hobby, and both have full-time jobs.

"I usually get to do about one high school game a week," Krysko said. "You have to love (umpiring) to go to your boss and say, 'I'm going to leave early today so I can go watch baseball.' "

Gagne, who is self-employed, doesn't have that problem because he can set his own hours. He says umping is "good pocket money," for the summer, but that's definitely not why he does it, especially since umpires have to supply their own equipment, which costs around $500. Then what is it?

"You have to love the game," Krysko said. "Especially at this level. You take a beating back there."

Both literally and, sometimes, figuratively.

Standing behind the plate, with 13-year-olds swinging metal bats and hurling baseballs straight toward him, Krysko has taken more than his fair share of lumps. And that eventually takes a toll.

At this game, a playoff contest between two of the best teams in the league, he didn't get hit, but the catcher reacted late to a high fastball, snagging it at the last possible second.

Krysko got beaned twice in an earlier game, so he couldn't help but duck.

"I gotta stop doing that," he said to Gagne.

Gagne chuckled - he knows all too well how much those stray balls can hurt, having been hit five times the night before.

Then there's the "less than friendly" parents and coaches.

It doesn't happen often - especially at the high school level, where Krysko says he's only had one coach yell at him - but when it does, it's bad.

The Foxboro Youth Baseball Association has put an emphasis on cleaning up that type of behavior, but the ugly side of youth baseball still shows itself sometimes. The two coaches from this particular game were well-behaved today, but they have both acted like "complete morons" in previous games and seasons, arguing pitches and screaming at umpires.

Still, Krysko has only ejected one person in 10 years on the job. It was a little league tournament game a couple of years ago, and he was umping with a high school kid.

"He made a few questionable calls on the bases, but I was backing him up," Krysko said, later adding that umps stick up for each other and rarely overturn each other's calls. "The coach was at him all game, and then at one point he crossed the line."

The coach went out to the plate without calling time-out and laid into the high school-age umpire. He was so angry and intense that Krysko and the other coach had to physically pull him off the field. Krysko said he was ready to call the police, but they eventually got the coach to calm down and leave.

"We never want to do it," Gagne said. "But it's part of the job. If it happens, it happens, and you have to do the right thing. Luckily, it doesn't happen that often."

There are certain preemptive things an ump can do to try and cool a coach down before the situation gets out of hand. If a coach comes out to argue, Gagne said that the other ump will always come, too, to lend a hand and back up his partner.

Also, if the coach has to run all the way out to second base, where one ump always stands when there are runners on base, it would be even more embarrassing for him to make a scene.

Or, simply turning your back on the coach and setting up to resume play.

"If he looks a little foolish, then usually that's enough to calm him down," Krysko said.

The most important thing for an ump, though, is to never lose control. If they shout back, they could get in big trouble.

Even with the tribulations, umpiring is a passion for both Krysko and Gagne - just being around baseball and helping out the area's youth make it all worthwhile.

"I love the game," Gagne said. "It's just a fun thing to do."