[UmpJM]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for all the kind words.

I was both quite surprised and quite pleased when the award was announced.

From everything I can tell, Fox Valley Blues is truly an outstanding umpire association, and I feel privileged to be a member - and truly honored to be recognized. Even though they knew I was a (former) coach, they made me feel welcome and an awful lot of the members went out of their way to help me learn to become a better umpire. Great group of umpires and a great group of guys.

Becoming an umpire this season has been both a lot of fun and very challenging for me. I realize I've still got a ways to go to become the umpire I'd like to be, but it's nice to get some reinforcement that I've made a good start.

Regardless of how good an umpire I am today (or not), I believe that I'm certainly a better umpire than I would be had I not learned so much from those who contibute their knowledge and experience on this (and other) forum(s). So, thanks to all of you.

BTW, the "ultimate" annual recognition awarded by FVB is the "Big Dawg" award. This year's recipient was none other than Bob Jenkins.

Congratulations, Bob!

JM