Weekend Wrap....

The weekend was fast moving, and basically consisted of BASEBALL. Sam and I started out at Minster, Ohio, on Friday night for the beginning of it's mid-summer Little League and Pony League Classic. A well put together tournament, where they get licensed umpires to do the Pony League games and make them as competitive and fair as possible...Sam usually does 5, 6, or more games(this year he did 5) and I usually do a couple, and Friday was my share this summer. We got home around 11:30pm.

Not much sleep, Sam drove back to Minster for a 9AM game, while I headed to Van Wert for the beginning of the American Legion District Tournament double header.....American Legion Baseball is played by quality baseball players from 16 to 19 who have college potential or are already enrolled in their first year of college....usually pretty competitive and intense. As usual many of the 'fans", i.e. parents are clueless, that have no idea of the rules, strike zones, etc....But of the 4 teams this year, only 1 set of fans fit that bill, and I usually enjoy "baiting" them into cat calls, and a 9 inning bitch session....part of what makes the game fun, and moving along.

Some blowouts in the 4 weekend games and plenty of runs scored. After doing the bases with Dan Mac behind the plate in game one, I took the plate for game #2...Sam drove the hour from Minster to VW to do the bases for the second game....we got into the 6th inning, with Sidney leading Van Wert 11-1. About that time the skies darkened, and then opened up, the first of 3 heavy downpours to hit Van Wert in a 12 hour peroid....we postponed it until Sunday.

Sunday saw more showers early, then sun, heat, and humidity, along with some wind, dried things off...Sam and I headed back to Smiley Park and picked up the delayed game at 3PM....Sidney jumped out with 10 more runs to run rule the host team 21-1.

I kept the plate gear on(must of been out of my mind) for the winner's bracket contest between Lima and Sidney....3 hours in the heat, 5 bottles of water later, and Lima came out on top 13-10. We took a half hour off, and then began the elimination game between Van Wert and St. Marys, Sam did the plate, his 8th game of the weekend.....it wasn't close, the host team jumped out early and won in a run ruled 7 inning game 27-1...we got home just before Midnight....bushed to say the least.

So we have 4 American Legiion games, 3 of them run rules, and 97 runs to go with the delay....I am back tomorrow night for the elimination game between Van Wert and Sidney.....and a possible championship game #2 on Thursday. That will be baseball for me this season(I've now done approaching 80 games)...except for the Legion District All-Start game on July 30th back at Van Wert.

So that was my weekend....I did manage to smoke a cigar on Saturday night and have a few beers each evening....just to replace the liquid weight loss from sweating off those pounds in 95 degree heat with humidity to match(lol!).....today more storms are approaching western Ohio, and I plan on resting up. Will work in Greenville on Wednesday and Friday this week, that and the game tomorrow night should give me enough time to rest my legs, back, and tired 59 year old body.

back later....................>>>