Wrapping up the Weekend 5/22-5/23/10

In the old days, when I actually held a real job, the weekends always seemed to fly by, and were never long enough...they still aren't, but these days, with working baseball and other sports at various times during the seasons....that just doesn't seem to bother me as much. Not that I like to see the weekends fly by, but it's just not as big a "bummer" these days.

After the rains cancelled most of the Baseball and Softball Tournament action on Friday, things were pushed into Saturday and even tonight. It worked to my advantage...

I got a call from the Elida Tournament Director early Saturday Morning...thinking "OK the games are moved back to Sunday afternoon"...wrong! The District Division 3 Final between Coldwater and Bluffton would be played as scheduled...however, the Division 4 final between Delphos St. Johns and Miller City, would be played at 5PM since it had been washed out the previous evening. Dave's question was "can you work the 2nd game as well"? Seems all 3 other umpires had something going on. One a Wedding, one a Softball final, and something else with the 3rd...so Bob, Mark, and I, got a chance to work 2 District Finals...

I was scheduled to work the D3 at 3rd base, and the rotation would have me move to first base in the second game....I switched with Bob on that one, since I will be working 3rd base for the Regional Final at the same location this coming Friday, I figured, might as well practice. You see, seldom do we work a 3 man crew in High School Baseball....the usual 2 man crew works regular season through the Sectional...you only work 3 man for District and Regional Games...then a 4 man crew if you are lucky/good enough to be assigned a State Final or Semi Final contest.

The field was in excellent condition and both games went smoothly and quickly(both less than 1 hour 45 minutes)...the 2 MAC, Midwest Athletic Conference, schools won going away. Coldwater took it's 4 straight District with a 11-1, five inning win over Bluffton, while Delphos St. Johns, a team that started out 3 wins and 7 losses, improved to 15-10 with a 6-1 win over Putnam County Champion, Miller City, in a game that featured a couple of mammoth blasts over the Center Field Fence. If Coldwater wins it's D3 Regional Semi at Elida on Thursday, Bob(plate) and me(3rd base) will see them again, our partner for that contest to decide the D3 Regional will be Ron Goleman(first base), who is the Secretary of our Van Wert Association.....

With baseball done for the weekend, I spent the early hours of Sunday mowing lawns...first over to Mom's, then home to finish the job that Patricia had started...I spent the rest of the afternoon, smoking cigars and drinking cold Miller Lites out back...bad habit to waste a Sunday Afternoon like that, but you know, sometimes it just seems the thing to do...at least I was outdoors in the rare good weather.

It appears that Summer will pay a visit for the next 10 days or so...and if you can believe the extended forecasts(and you can't very often), no rain in our area until the late days of the Memorial Day Weekend...

Patricia is finished with school for the year on Thursday...and then will fly out to Wisconsin to spend a handful of days with her parents and visiting siblings...I'll finish up my High School season on Friday with the Regional Championship, and then daughter Anissa will visit for a few hours each day on Saturday, Sunday, and Memorial Day Monday, otherwise it will be me, the Airedale, and the Cat to fend for ourselves, well Sam has to be home Friday to replace me in an ACME game, but otherwise the Bachelor Life for a few days....Patricia will return Tuesday Evening...and by that time I will be fully into the Summer Baseball season, with ACME(Summer High School) and American Legion games...of all the months of sports April and June are the busiest...I looked at the schedule, and barring rain outs or cancellations...I have June 8th and 2 Sundays open in the Month...and those may get filled as well. July will see things slow down somewhat, then it's football time in mid to late August...

Here I am looking ahead to the end of Summer and it's still May....that is sad indeed!

Errands to take care of and chores to complete...back later>>>>