Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

A windy and warm St. Patrick's Day...temps near 70, with a solid breeze from the south.  I had gotten an offer for Ada High School to umpire it's first scrimmage.  So despite being 50 miles each way...I took the offer.  What the heck?  $60 to work a couple of hours in the sunshine...a chance to kick the rust off the gear, and see if I could call balls and strikes.  That sounded good to me.

Arrived at 4:15, met up with the other ump, Dave out of Findlay.  I would work the plate as Jackson Center would take on the home standing Bulldogs...both teams first opportunity to work outdoors.  Both squads actually played fairy well, and we went a little over two hours as everybody on both teams saw some action.  Once done, about 7:15, I headed back towards Lima to fill the tank up, and then home to Celina.

On the way home, I tuned in the Van Wert vs Rocky River Regional D2 game.  The Cougars pulled to a 6 point lead with about 2 minutes left...and for some unknown reason, they decided to keep shooting, 3 pointers no less, and it didn't work out.  They blew the lead, and RR popped in a 3 pointer of their own with 10 seconds left, to come away with a 54-52 win, and move on to the Regional Finals against Toledo Scott.  While the boys are in the Regional, Sam is working camera for the Girls State Tournament in Columbus.  Local team Fort Loramie won it's semi final game in D4, while Delphos Jefferson was defeated by 2...this afternoon in D3, Fort Recovery and Anna take each other on at 1pm.   Two teams that are familiar with each other, both schools are part of the MAC in Football, so the fans and teams a good area mix.

Meanwhile, how are your NCAA Brackets doing?

My southeast and southwest brackets took a hit yesterday...especially with Louisville and St. Johns, out of the Big "Least" Conference, getting beat....both the Blue Devils out of Duke, and Ohio State play their first round games this afternoon.  I suspect both will win without major problems, however, after Louisville getting knocked off by Morehead State yesterday, you never know.

Nothing going on for me tonight, but tomorrow, up early to work as an instructor at Rockford for the Umpire Clinic that our Van Wert association is putting on for area baseball umpires....that will take care of 6 hours to kick off the weekend.  It appears the temperatures will drop, but still remain near or above normal, with some sunshine.

Get out and enjoy the weekend if you can...I plan on it.

back later>>>>

Photos-Yep, it's only mid March, but days like today and yesterday get you in the mood for getting ready to plant, ready for baseball, and other Spring Activities...but I know, reality will set back in soon enough, after all, it's still mid March.  The NCAA will trim another 16 teams off the brackets today, and half that before the weekend comes to a close.