I had three baseball games to work this past Saturday but when I woke up around 7 am and looked outside, I didn't think there was any chance we would be playing. It was raining and it appeared that it had been doing so all night. There was standing water in our yard so I could only imagine what it would look like at the different baseball and softball fields around our district. Now, a "little" rain we can typically deal with and since all of the games (22 of them) weren't until 11 am and 2 pm, it would be pretty easy to just delay the start and play later. However, with 22 games, we really needed to try and get these games in. In our area, the teams are used to not playing on Sunday and would rather not but, you do what you have to do.

By 10 am things still didn't look good but the rain wasn't coming down as hard and the weather radar still showed more rain coming. I made a couple of calls to the different leagues and found that some of the fields were in pretty good shape and would try to start on time while others were going to push the 11 am start to 2 pm and then move the 2 pm games out later. The park where I was schedule to be at for two games (11 and 2) thought that they could be ready pretty close the starting time and had been working on the fields since 7 am to get ready. Lucky for me, it's a short drive to Gull Lake Little League and the President told me, "we'll be ready!"

Upon arriving at the park, they were indeed ready and the playing field looked great! You could tell they had spent a lot of time and effort to get things ready and the teams were there and ready to play too. I should mention that this first game was for a first round 9 and 10 year old baseball game. If any of you parents or umpires have  ever watched or umpired a regular season 9-10 game, you know how they can go; lots of hits, errors; strike-outs, etc. It's also a division where as the umpire, you get hit with a lot of foul and passed balls that the catcher misses. Over the years I have done several 9-10 beginning round tournament games and they can be just as frustrating. I also feel that the 9-10 year olds deserve the same umpiring effort you give the 17-18 year olds. With this in mind, I took the field planning on doing my best but not expecting much too from the game. Boy was I wrong!  I should also mention that for this first game, I was scheduled for the Plate and the second game was a Major level (11-12 year olds) I would be doing the bases and it would be a semi-final loser bracket game with the winner moving on to the Championship game on Monday, 7/14.

The teams scheduled to play were West Portage American Little League versus Gull Lake (the host league) and you could tell both teams were ready to get the game underway. After exchanging lineups at the plate meeting, I went over the ground rules with the Managers and Coaches. I always include sportsmanship in my plate meetings and told them that the one of the nice things about being an opening round was that, win or lose, both teams would play another day. But, sportsmanship was also part of the rules; we (the umpires, managers and coaches) were the adults and needed to act that way and set the example for the players and would expect them to act accordingly. After completing the plate meeting, the players were announce, the national anthem was played and we were ready to begin the game.

I'm not going to bore you with all the details of the game but will tell you that for an opening round of 9-10 baseball, the game was exciting and well played by both teams. The game went the full 6 innings with Gull Lake the winner by a score of 6 to 5. West Portage did have an opportunity at the bottom of the 6th inning. They had a runner on 3rd with two outs but the last batter popped up to the 3rd baseman to end the game. For me as an umpire, part of the fun in working a game is interacting with the catchers. Both catchers were great players and let very few passed balls get passed them. During a break between innings I went to the sidelines and asked the parents "who owns this catcher?". When I make a comment like this, I say it in a way that may come across as concern so of course the "owning" parent is a bit reluctent to come forward, but they always do. When the parent (usually the mom) comes to the fence I tell them that they have a great kid and it's been a lot of fun working behind him. Since they thought I was going to say something completly different I usually get a pretty good chuckle and thanks from them. To me, especially at this younger level of play, it's important that while you want the kids to play well, you also want them to have fun and enjoy the whole All Star experience. Being one of the bigger kids on the field myself, I make sure we ALL have fun!

For my second game of the day I was on bases for the Major semi-final loser bracket game between Parchment Little League and South Portage National Little League. Parchment was coming out of the winners bracket having played won 3 games before losing the 4th, putting them in the losers bracket. South Portage had lost their very first game and had battled back in the loser bracket having played 5 games to get to this point. Unfortunately for South Portage, this would be their last game of the 2008 season. Parchment ending up winning the game by a score of 12 to 3 moving them into the Championship game on July 14. If you would like a copy of the bracket, click here.

The Championship game on Monday, July 14 will be West Portage National Little League who remains undefeated and Parchment Little League who has only lost 1 game. However, Parchment has a tough job in front of them. Because West Portage is undefeated and this is a double elimination tournament, they must defeat West Portage twice. The winner of this game will move on to the Major Baseball State Tournament in Bay City, MI. As I mentioned in my first blog, I will be umpiring in the State tournament and will follow the winner to Bay City and cover the games there with the eventual winner representing Michigan in the Central Region Tournament. The ultimate goal - the Little League World Series in Williamsport!