Meaningless score in a high school baseball scrimmage game. Not to say the scrimmage was meaningless, in Ohio and the midwest, you only get so many chances to work your teams out before the season starts, and these contests are important, just the scores are not.
Sam and I traveled to Sidney, Ohio, yesterday for our first baseball contest of the season, a scrimmage between 2 area teams, the Indians of Ft Recovery and the Cavaliers of Sidney Lehman. The temps were in the upper 40s, cloudy with south winds approaching 45 miles per hour at times...the main thing was to get some work in for the coming season, and to find out how my back responded.
I took home plate for the 2 1/2 hour contest, with the wind blowing hard at my back, with the gear on I stayed fairly comfortable, meanwhile out on the diamond with the wind straight on at his face, Sam said he "froze his ass off". A pretty uneventful scrimmage, designed to give both teams needed "live play" before their March 31st openers.
"The Back?" Well it, so far, seems to be holding up....although it did stiffen up and that made it hard to bend over the last few innings, but all-in-all, this morning, I can't complain. We made it home by 8:30 from the 40 mile or so drive, I cracked open a couple of beers and relaxed the rest of the night...getting 8 hours sleep I figure would tell me if the back would be a problem, and as I sit here, I can give it a couple(or at least a one and a half) of thumbs up. Next weeks full 6 game schedule may say more, Sam has a Thursday scrimmage at Minster, I have opted for no more until the season begins at Delphos Jefferson next Monday.
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2 of my favorite music videos of baseball:
John Fogerty(Creedence) Center Field:
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and Alabama with Cheap Seats:
Next Weeks Schedule:(with miles to drive, total back and forth)
3/31-At Delphos Jefferson vs Kalida(JV) with Sam...(60 Miles)
4/1-At Parkway(Rockford) vs Spencerville(Varsity)(16)
4/2-At Upper Scioto Valley vs Bluffton(Varsity) with Sam(90)
4/3 At Delphos Jefferson vs Delphos St Johns(Varsity)(60)
4/4 At Ottawa-Glandorf vs Miller City(Varsity)(110)
4/5 At Celina vs Vandalia-Butler(Freshman) Double Header(1)
Now with the uncertain spring weather, it's any body's guess how many of those will be played or rained out...as of now the forecast isn't good.
Sam and I have about 15 games together this season, we usually worked 7 or 8, but with the price of fuel, it is a little easier on the profit margin if we work together or with other veteran umpires from Celina....yesterday I was contracted for the opening Sectional Tournament games at Crestview(Convoy) for May 10th, and will work them with Garry Mosier, from Celina....since I'm on Garry's board at MRS, we work together on occasion as well....speaking of which, Garry, Sam, and I have one more umpire rules meeting we will attend, tonight in Van Wert.
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photo-me at work in a tournament game a few summers ago.
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6 comments:
You're a good man, Pat.
Baseball's my sport. I watched Boston/Oakland preseason in Japan for a bit.
I'm sure we'll have lot to talk about this summer. The Angels are just down the freeway a bit from my home. Got some field-level tickets for a game with my kids school, and then'll we'll hit a few more over the summer.
I love the summer too.
Don: One of my friends from my old home town of Scott, Ohio, another Vietnam Air Force SP is a LAA@A fan:
http://www.vspa.com/
Bill lives out your way and has season tickets to the Angles.
Being a Reds fan, I do not like the hire of Dusty Baker as manager, I think he ruins young pitchers and relies to much on has been veterans....hopefully he will prove me wrong. Either way, I am ready for the season...as always, thanks for dropping by.
Pat, you sure do find some interesting ways to make a living. I go to an office and sit on my butt and punch numbers into spreadsheets. You drive all over hell's half acre and go to sporting events. You must have done right in a previous life or something.
Sounds like a huge amount of fun. I think I'll start goin' to some high school baseball games here soon. Great tunes too.
Hermit....I was a burea-rat for 20 years in the Environmental Health field....the only good thing about that job(besides the pay and bennies) was the fact I got to do most of my work "in the field" and only spend an hour or 2 a day at the desk.
But retirment and the various jobs I do now is superior...but I must thank my wife, the school teacher, since without her, I would still be doing the daily grind.
FHB: The early season is usually cold as Hell, then by the time we start doing summer and American Legion games, you sweat your butt off....I love the warm weather games better.
It's a great good thing to hear your back is holding up, Pat. I hope it stays that way!!
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