Paul Giamatti explained on 'The Tonight Show' why he wanted to be an umpire while growing up

There is a long list of people who are not currently professional baseball players that I would very much like to see play baseball. Paul Giamatti is near the top of that list. For one thing, he has a baseball pedigree: His father, Bart Giamatti, was the seventh commissioner of baseball. Much to my dismay, however, Paul wasn't exactly interested in playing baseball growing up.

"I used to want to be the umpire when I was a kid."

During his interview on "The Tonight Show" on Thursday night, Giamatti and Jimmy Fallon talked a bit about his rather peculiar ambition as a five-year-old. Why would a kid eschew playing ball to ump it? Once he explained himself, though, he actually made a couple good points.

"It was an awesome gig," Giamatti said. "I was like, 'I don't really want to run much, I think I'll stand.'"

"You don't even want to be behind home plate?" Fallon asked.

"No, I want to be out at second base. … I looked at those guys and I thought, 'That's [expletive] awesome.' They're just standing and they're at the ballpark. It's fantastic."

Could you imagine Paul Giamatti as an MLB umpire?