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In Texas, it is against the law to smoke on school grounds. So, imagine my surprise when I was working a tournament at a city complex a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed a strange odor. Made mention of it to my partner. Then it dawned on us that the reason it smelled so strange was the fact that since Febuary, we hadn't smelled the smell of smoke since all we had called was high school ball.
An aside to this smoking thing though. About 4 or 5 years ago when my daughter was still playing travel ball, we were astounded when we noticed both umps walk outside the fence between innings and smoke. They each had a pack in their pocket while on the field. To me, this was the pinnacle, if pinnacle is appropriate here, in non-professionalism. Made a comment about to the TD. He said that since it is allowed in the park, they allow the umps. (He seemed to miss the part about impressionable young ladies being around.)
One more aside to the smoking thing....after 26 years of smoking (during which I never smoked publically in my capacity as an umpire), last month I celebrated 5 years of being smoke free!
Scott
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