Can Spring be Far Behind?

I got home early last night, about 8pm, after working a boys JV roundball game at Van Wert...always interesting at that school, since for many years back in the 1980s and 90s I was the voice of the Van Wert Cougars, providing the play-by-play voice on the local Cable TV channel.  I stayed away from officiating and umpiring games there for years, because I knew everybody and they all knew me from my days, not only at Cable Channel 7, but from the years I spent as Environmental Health Director at the VW County and City Health Department.  I started working baseball at Van Wert a few years back..then started officiating basketball about 5 years ago...still everytime I walk into the massive new gym, the older folks and most of the coaches, and score table workers know me from years back...it's still a strange feeling to have fans give me the business, the way I gave officials in years past when broadcasting.

Van Wert came from behind to defeat Fort Wayne{IN} Carroll in the JV contest...my partner Doug and I talked with the varsity crew, out of Columbus for a bit, then I headed home....Patricia and I arrived at the same time, me from Van Wert and basketball, and my wife from her Tuesday Bible study group.  Checking the mail, I noticed that this year's baseball packet for both Sam and I had arrived...of course Sam won't be using his, at least not in Ohio...he plans on switching his license to Illinois, where he has been licensed before, back in 2003 and 04...as for me, I was glad to see it arrive, sure the official meetings don't begin until the middle of February, our State Clinic for Umpires{one of 3 in Ohio}is slated to be held at
Lincolnview on February 23rd...as one of the average to small sized  organizations in Ohio, it is a big deal for us to be the host association for this, the second straight year.  As President-Elect{mostly a figurehead slot}of the Mid-West Buckeye Umpire Association,  I enjoy participating in these clinics...even at 64, by the time I take the field this Spring, you are never too old or experienced to learn and teach sometime new.

So despite my first baseball work on the field not scheduled until middle March, the arrival of the packet and the first unofficial meeting at Van Wert tonight, where the veteran umpires get together and work out the association plans for the year, has me thinking baseball and the spring that comes with it.

Dover and my Air Force Days....

After corresponding with my old Dover Air Base mate Howie Pritchard the past few days, I have decided to pen the story of my Air Force days from the summer of 1968 through May of 1972...on occasion I will post on this blog stories of my on-base activity from those days, the people I knew and places I frequented...I am lucky, even at my age, when like all 60 something types, I have short term lapses in
memory, my recollections of those days, and many of the names and faces, are pretty clear, despite have only a handful of  photos from the period.  For the next few days and weeks, I will dig back in my memory banks...not sure how much or how many details I will be able to write about...but like anything else, I will give it my best shot.

Stay tuned for that over the next few days...I may start this week, next, or in a couple...but I will begin soon enough....

back later>>>>

Photos-The New Rules and Books arrived in yesterday's mail for the upcoming season...and I, like the photo of me umpiring in 2011 shows, am ready for the upcoming season...and I will look back over the next few weeks, in bits and pieces, at my four year life as a Air Force Security Cop...1968-72