What injuries will we be healing from this winter?

[Justme]

Originally Posted by DTQ_Blue

Justme, Justme, Justme .....

I'll just have to work on becoming a real man.

Lighten up guys, I'll take the hint.

Okay Mike, I’ll lighten up

Mike, if you are going to umpire you are going to have to expect some pain from time to time. Being an ‘older’ umpire (late 50’s) I’ve learned to deal with the pain. I just tighten up the knee braces, put on the equipment, and go out and do what I have loved doing for a very long time. I can not remember a season where I was looking forward to no more baseball. Around here we play ball from late Jan/early Feb until mid-Dec. there’s not much time to recover from an injury.

When HS & college ball is not being played I work the adult leagues (4 games each week minimum). The league is comprised mainly of former college and professional players (18+). They get together as a team once each week to relive their ‘glory days’, usually without practicing together. The F1’s still bring the heat in the 90’s, but not always in the same location as when they were younger. The F2’s still try hard to catch every pitch and block the wild pitches, just like when the were in professional baseball but it isn’t the glory days anymore so sometimes my equipment gets a workout and sometimes I get a little additional pain. To be honest I do not get hit every game, in fact until my first game last Sunday (hit twice by foul balls) I hadn’t been hit in several weeks. Most of the time my equipment protects me but sometimes the ball finds the unprotected spots. There’s probably not an umpire in the world (if they’ve been working for a long time) that hasn’t been hit so hard that they just wanted to stop the game and go home…….I’ve been hit so hard that I’ve had to hold up the game to wait until the feelings of nausea passed.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough………. Good luck with your umpiring career.

[DTQ_Blue]

Justme,

OK I appreciate that.

I love the game as much as you or anyone on this board. I am no stranger to the physical price that can come with the game. I tore up both shoulders playing the game in my younger days and have matching surgical scars on each. I first umpired when my oldest son was in LL nearly 20 years ago. His baseball days were short numbered and my youngest son chose other sports. I would have umpired for the local LL for free even w/o kids in the program, but couldn't because I had a severely disabled daughter who required minute to minute care for 20 years until she passed away. The first spring after she was gone, I called up the local LL and volunteered to umpire for them; it was my therapy two years ago.

This is only my 2nd year working for the association and I got banged up a little this year and am looking forward to a few months off. WTH is wrong with that? I made my post just to see if anyone else had a similar year. I wasn't looking for anyone's sympathy and frankly, am stunned by the presumptuous rudeness some of you displayed.

This I will do. I'll finish out this season because my Commissioner needs my help, and he has been very good to me. I will be ready to work again next March with a passion for the game that equals anyone's on this board. I will visit this board in hopes of learning and becoming a better umpire, and I hope that we can have mutual respect.