PRH....Baseballs Last Call for 2011

After the generous rains over the just finished weekend...the sun hitting the saturated ground, made for some steamy conditions yesterday.  However, since the temperatures were closer to 90, rather than 100, I got out, and mowed both my and mom's yards...although it more amounted to "mowing down weeds" rather than trimming and cutting the lawns...but done they are and that should take care of them until next week.  The rains helped the parched soils and plants, but still left some of the area in need of more.  Celina seemed to luck out, the rains came, and they came at the right time with right amounts....except for that 12+ hour day of baseball they caused at the ACME State Tournament on Sunday.

Speaking of which.....

Tonight Garry and I finish up our season at Eastview's Montgomery Field with games 9 and 10 in the State Finals....in the opener I will be behind the plate as Lima Shawnee, a team I am very familiar with, takes on Greenville, who I had in the Spring and one time in ACME ball...the winner moves on to tomorrow night, while the loser can get ready for football, and the final weeks of summer before school is back in session.  Garry will take the plate for the nightcap, and that game will feature Vandalia-Butler(the team I had the plate for the 7 hour, multi-rain delayed game on Sunday) against Toledo Central Catholic, the team that had to sit while waiting for the rains to let them face Minster Sunday night...a game they lost 8-3 and then had to drive the 2+ hours back to Toledo.  The loser in this one is eliminated, while the winner moves on to Wednesday.  At this point Minster and Bowling Green are in the driver's seat, both at 2 wins with no loses, playing in the winner's bracket final tomorrow night at 6pm.  The entire tournament is double elimination.

As for me, the season, umpiring wise, comes to an end....I had a pretty good run, maybe 85 or 90 games worked, including multiple sectionals in the Spring, and Sectionals, Districts, and State games in the Summer. It was Cold and Wet early and then brutally hot and humid late, topped off by the downpour on Sunday.  I enjoy baseball, like the extra money it generates, and without a doubt the best sport for me, and the most enjoyable as well, of the three sports I officiate...but also without a doubt, I am glad it will end tonight.  Time for a few weeks off, then maybe I will be ready for football...as of now, I am not.

Tomorrow I rest up, then Thursday I pack up Sam's gold clubs(having given mine away) and head to Centerville, where youngest son Hal and I have a 7:35am "tee time" on a golf course where he plays.  It should be interesting...I have not played a regular round of golf on a real course in over five years....Hal may regret asking me to swing the clubs...although it will give him a chance to actually beat somebody.  Anything below 125 I will consider a successful outing.  Needless to say unlike my father-in-law who won a place in the British Open some 30 years ago, the golf game never rubbed off on me.....even though, God knows he tried to teach me to be a better hacker...but just plain hacker I remained before finally giving the game up, except for an occasion drunken Night Golf outing or the annual Bar Stool Mini Golf rounds during August...this year that comes up on August 6th.

Nuff for today...back later>>>

Photos-Me behind the plate at a Lima District ACME game earlier this month...photo courtesy of the Lima News, from whom I purchased this photo of me working the Lima Shawnee(whom I have tonight at State) vs Allen East game.  And the Bar Stool Open, less than two weeks away is where I do my only golfing these days....Thursday with youngest son Hal will be the exception, and most likely a disaster on the links for this hacker.