The Dog Days of July...

The weekend was ablaze, temperature-wise....no rain in west central Ohio, as the cold, wet, spring and early summer has turned into a dry, parched, late June through mid-July....rain they say, is on the way, but for now we bake.

Saturday I traveled to Rcokford for the Junior ACME District finals at Parkway...one or two games were scheduled in the double elimination tourney, and Crestview with no loses, made it a one game day, defeating Coldwater for the second time, 7-1, to take home the crown, and move onto the Semi State in Celina, starting Friday.  Saturday, Sam, after working the Buckeye Elite Tournament in the Columbus area, returned home, and we did a District ACME double header at Celina.  In the winner's bracket final between host Celina and Coldwater, I did the plate, in a 13-6 Coldwater win...the heat coming off the rubber turf was brutal.  With temperatures outside nearing 95 the turf temps had to be 20 degrees hotter.  The game, lasting almost 2 1/2 hours, was probably not my best behind the plate, but we survived it...in the second game, the elimination contest between Anna and Fort Loramie, Sam took the plate, and things went much smoother(i.e. less fans and less bitching), in the Fort's 8-2 victory, to eliminate the Rockets.  That District continues tonight, while I have the day off...tomorrow night, weather permitting, I travel with Garry to Lima Central Catholic to work that LCC District, and I return there on Wednesday as well for another single game.  After that, my schedule winds down....there are still some tournament assignments out there, but the only solid commitment is at Minster on July 22nd for two games.

Frankly, I am glad it's winding down....too cold and wet during the spring season, too damn hot thus far this summer...I usually have a fair amount of patience during the year, but this summer has pushed me far enough.  I've only tossed one coach, but like yesterday, I have bitten my tongue on more than one occasion, just to get through a game without firestorm.  It was just too damn hot to spend more time than I had to on that rubber turf, arguing about calls I wasn't going to change.  Sam had a couple of go-at-its, with the home coach...he got both calls right, but when you are losing, you are going to argue anyway, regardless of right or wrong.  That's why I gave up coaching years ago and went back to umpire work....much easier to walk away from.

As I sat next to the van, in the shade, after game one...a couple of Celina fans, relatives of Cory Luebke of the San Diego Padres, whose cousin was the Bulldog starting pitcher, were parked next to me...walked up and laughed as I was sitting in my lawn chair with an XM Classic Rock Station on.  I told them, I had it turned up so as not to listen to anybody bitching about the game....they smiled, waved good-by and I assume headed for a cold beer...which I wanted to do, but that would wait a couple of more hours....

That was my weekend....I did however enjoy a couple of cold ones once we were done with game 2....back to lawn mowing and watching the Radar to see when and if any rain will fall in the Grand Lake region....

back later>>>>

Photo-another one of the backyard flowers peeks out...