[Steve M]

I've said a number of times that I'd never had the opportunity to work a national. I spent this past weekend at the eastern 16&U A - so I can no longer say that. I had a ball. Here's some stuff from that -

I had my second ejection of the year. A coach insisted that he'd deal with me via the uic. So, go do it now, bye. I think it was the only one for the tournament.

I had a base runner run into me. B-R ran through first, then decided to head to 2B on the overthrow. I was glad she made 2B, but I was in the correct position.

I had 2 tag plays at the plate in one game where I signalled obstruction, then safe.

I had one illegal pitch that I called. It wasn't until the 5th inning that I called it, but that's when I first saw it.

I was the rabbit in the loser's final - ran my little bunny tail off. PU & I had done a number of 3-man games. 1BU had not worked a 3-man. In about the second inning, we had a play where everyone had to rotate - and we were all right there. Hope that was as much fun to watch as it was to take part in.

I had some shiny shoes - and I wasn't the only one.

This was the one Mike uic'd. That was a lot of fun. I understand that it was his first as the uic. The umpiring schedule & handling was well organized. I had not seen Mike in a few years - that beard had enough gray that I wasn't sure it was you, at first. I'm sure Mike will have a few comments.

For those who've known the Drifton, Pa complex - come on back. The fields have been fixed up - with roughly a million $$ spent on them and maint equipment. The building has not had much done to it yet, but that's next on their list.

We only had 1 big problem. It went to the "if" game. By then, I was in the beer bracket................ Still am (since I'm off work today)