A year in review

Section 9 8-10 Baseball crew last night.
 It looks a little familiar.

I finished my pre-regional games last night at first base for the 8-10 baseball section 9 game. Now to finish the final preparations for Friday. I like this time of year on Facebook as my memories are all of umpiring with some of my favorite people in the world. 

 So I want to look back on the year that was today. Last year, I did 3 games in March and then we got shut down for the rest of the year. It was so hard to be gone from the game for that long. This year, when games started up in Menifee in April, I was all over them. It was great to be back on the field helping kids play a game. 

There was one thing about this year, though. I never had so many strange calls as I did this year. Obstructions, interferences, illegally batted balls, balks, calls I hadn't called in 10 years getting called multiple times this year. I had bad behaving coaches who needed to go home. This year, I did more games than I have done since I was the UIC in Bloomington trying to make a volunteer program run again. I got to umpire for Little League in Menifee, Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, and Murietta. Post-season I jumped up to Fontana, Grand Terrace, Hesperia, and San Diego. Have uniform, will travel. 

 Probably the highlight of the season was getting to umpire my youngest daughter's team several times. She had a rough season in Seniors at the plate. Last game of the year, we were at Lake Elsinore and the umpire pulls up next to us. It is an umpire I respect and have worked with before. I ask who he is working with and he isn't. He's got a Senior game solo. I ask if he wants a partner and suddenly I'm on the bases. 

My daughter's team hadn't won a game all season. They were battling with the team from Elsinore, down by one in the bottom of the 5th. There were runners on second and third and my daughter comes up. I'm in the C position. She gets to 3-2, 2 outs, and hits a looping fly ball down the third base line which lands about 3 feet fair. My partner calls fair and the dugout explodes in excitement. 2 runs score, she's standing on second, first true hit of the season. It was all I could do not to cry on the field as I'm the impartial arbiter at this point. I have a hard time thinking of when I have been happier on the field. 

They won. She got the game ball. The boys all cheered as we walked back to the car to leave. She smiled the entire ride home. 

 That's what this year has been about. We have helped kids who probably wouldn't make a travel ball team play as part of a team. We stood up to disease and said life will not end but we will enjoy life once again by playing a simple game. For all the bad tempers I encountered this year, there were 10 players happy to be out of the house and running the bases. Whenever I talked with a coach, I mentioned that this year was better than last year, no matter how hot it was. 

At the beginning of the season we had rust, missed calls, bad plays, and bonehead moves. By the end, we remembered why we were out there - it's fun. It develops leadership. Character, courage, and loyalty. It was an incredible season. I'm glad mine isn't quite done yet.