We had our metro championships this weekend. We had a pretty heavy rainstorm Friday afternoon, so a few of the complexes were delayed Saturday morning for a few hours for prep. (yeah I know, Seattle, rain, blah blah. ) Well, because of that, games were pushed later in the day - typical life of the tournament. One game that started the last round was actually halted because the field lights were scheduled to go off (they're on timers and can't be turned on at the field.)
So Sunday morning I'm getting ready for my 11:45am start when I get a call at home around 9am from our Deputy UIC asking if I could go to a different site to finish a game that was halted the night before. This halted game had 12 minutes left to finish... so I said sure. I got my stuff and headed out.
When I got there, I found out that the game was in the top of the 4th, 3-3 tie, with 2 outs. I'm thinking, great, I've got a tie game, and about 90 minutes to finish this game and drive 10 miles to the complex I'm scheduled to work. Then I find out that there's a runner on 3B, so I'm thinking, this shouldn't be a problem. She scores, we kill 12 minutes, no problem.
Then I get the lineup cards from the UIC. I find out that one team was actually playing shorthanded and taking an out in the 9-hole. Now that team has 5 more rostered players available today. So before I even get up to the field, I go to the UIC and ask is they can add them to the lineup - sure they can. They can even fill the 9-hole and avoid the out. Great.
Well, the other coach has a conniption when we tell him this. 15 minutes arguing with the UIC about not being fair, not what was told to him the night before, "show me in the rule book", ...he finally backed down.
Then we get to the field and find out that right before the game was called the night before, there was 1 out, and the #8 batter hit a triple. Then the HPU called the game. Now the coach taking the out in the 9-hole wants to know if he has 1 out or 2 out. Good question. Let's think about this. An automatic out happens immediately after the previous batter completes her time at bat - similar to how a new inning begins immediately after the 3rd out is made in the previous inning. So coach, you have 2 outs, with a runner on 3B. He's not too happy, but he lives with it.
Then to make matters even more complicated, the team with the conniption coach informs us that at least 4 of his girls have on different uniform numbers today. Ugh. Ok, let's correct that and make sure both books know the numbers, game situation, and wtf is going on.
After almost 25-30 minutes of "preliminaries" and solving problems, we start the game. Time runs out, we start the tie breaker in the top of the 6th, and go 2 more innings like that until someone scores. Almost 35 minutes of game time.
So the "12-minute game" wound up taking over an hour to complete. I booked it to the other complex and started my 11:45 game at noon.
What a day.
