Growing Up in Vencie, Florida, {part #4 from 2008}...More Rain!

14 games in, 17 more cancelled...that is my count, if you include scrimmages, for baseball so far this Spring....I don't recall ever getting more games cancelled that I umpired in the past 14 years since I re~entered the officiating wars.

I picked up Garry just before 4pm yesterday...it was cloudy in Celina, but the rains looked an hour or more away, so we figured we would at least get the game, a WBL Conference bout between host Van Wert and visiting Elida, started, but by the time we got within a mile north of the city, we noticed it had rained a bit, or maybe more.   A lone shower had hit the city and Smiley Park just before we got there, but it was just enough to lay down the dust on the diamond.  I donned the plate gear, and we headed to the field where we started just before the scheduled 5pm start....the light rain came shortly after the start, but the sky never opened up completely, and we were done within 90 minutes, a 6-4 Van Wert win.

My plate shoes were a mess and today will require some major cleanup work...there will be no game for me today...frankly there will be few if any games played today.  The rain started in full about 10 last night, and it's still coming down, light, but steady.  It will last through Noon at least.  I was not scheduled to umpire anyway, this being my last non Sunday day without a scheduled Varsity game between now and Sectional time in mid~May....with the way things are, I am sure I will get a game or two, or more rained out between now and the end of my Tournament run....a short one this year, only my second year in the past 8 without a District game, not to mention no Regional or State game...one of those years, guess I didn't do enough butt kissing{insert, that never has or will happen, icon}with the powers that be giving out those prime assignments.

Tomorrow, if it dries off, I head 55 miles north to Sherwood for a GMC game with my former

Football Crew Chief Steve, then Friday another long trip north, 60 miles to Glandorf, as O~G hosts Kenton in another WBL contest.  Saturday a double header between Allen East and visiting Ada over in eastern Allen County.

Meanwhile we wait out today's rain, and coming cold....it appears the entire mid section of the nation is still in late winter mode....with that I look back at some warmer times, part 4 of my 2008 Blog Series, "Growing up in Venice, Florida".

Click the Link below:

http://patsdailyrant.blogspot.com/2008/05/growing-up-in-venice-floridapart-4.html

Photos~Venice Beach {Florida} as it looks these days....and I don't think many games will be played this afternoon on area diamonds...