[Andy]

Finished up the tournament on Sunday....what a weekend! This was a fastpitch tournament, but you wouldn't know it by the scores. Many, many games with at least one of the teams scoring in double digits - the worst one I saw was an 18-14 final score. Approx 50 teams in the tournament, ASA three game guarantee format, about 120 games. The lady doing the stats for the tournament said that there were 202 home runs hit during the tournament. I did 12 games (at $20 per) and had at least one home run in each game.

Our UIC was Wild Bill...what a character! This was my first time meeting him and he lived up to every story I've heard. I did get a chance to sit and talk with him one on one the last day of the tourney after my games were finished. I will work for him anytime. SRW and bkbjones - I did tell him that I had "met" you two on the board here...he had good things to say about both of you. He also said that he would work with our state UIC here in AZ to get some of our guys up to Washington next year...that would be a treat.

I only had one ejection in the tournament and it was easy..."YOU HAVE TO BE F....NG KIDDING ME!" after a called strike three.

About the only other unusual thing was that we had one umpire removed from a game during a weather delay on Saturday and sent home...there were near riots in three of the games he was assigned to...Wild Bill said that was the first time he ever had to do something like that.

It was a good tourney and I had a great time...saw some old friends and one I didn't expect to see...he was called at the last minute to replace another umpire with a conflict. Lots of beer was drank and lots of stories were exchanged.....probably me best experience at a national yet.