[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

For those of you who do not live in NW Ohio and SE Michigan, the month of April has been one of the wettest in history which means lots of rained out baseball and softball games.

I have lost one single softball game, one single baseball game, and five baseball DH. MTD, Jr., has lost three single baseball games and two baseball DH. His two DH were with me. Lots of money has been lost this month (oh wait, we don't umpire of the money, ).

Anyway, Mark, Jr., had a FR baseball game (he was BU) and I had an open date, so I decided to go with him and watch the game. The first four innings went quickly with the Home team taking a 1-0 lead into the top of the fifth. But the weather was miserable (cold, very windy, and on and off again drizzles). Being the smart old geezer that I am, I told Junior that I was headed back to the car.

This is probably the reason I will not be umpiring very long in the sport of baseball. We have received the very same rain that you get. Almost every day has been a wash. I lost about 4 games this week because it rained almost every day. When we do play it is very cold and not fun sitting outside. And if I am supposed to umpire and the games are cancelled, it ruins the day as I am either waiting on a game to be cancelled or the schools wait until the final moments to work a game. Then we have schools that act like our time is not valuable by changing dates and times to try to fit a game without consideration that the time or site change might affect your availability. I think I am done with that constant game being played. I had friends tell me some time it was not worth it and one of them said they did not miss it when they retired from the sport. The games themselves are fun when it is not freezing, but all the BS leading up to it is making this not fun anymore.

Peace