ASA Nationals
 

I thought there was a previous thread on this subject, but couldn't find it.

Looks like I will be doing my first ASA Nationals - 14A in Johnson City, TN.
Just curious if anyone on this board is going to be there?

If anyone has any first-hand experience with any of the teams who are going there, it would be interesting to hear of any notable anecdotes. The teams going are listed at http://cojc1.johnsoncitytn.org/Parks...d%20Teams.html

Would also be interesting to know who else is going to be at the various ASA Nationals?

Owenboro, KY
 

I'm doing the 18U A in Owensboro, Kentucky. It will be my fourth national. Looking forward to it!

All the Indiana teams are pretty solid...Shockwave routinely beat quality 16U teams...I hope the all do well.

Man, do away with Metro Atl and all of a sudden, "coaches" are being sent to umpire national tournaments. :eek: Graybill must be spinning in his grave!!!

Tony, obviously, just kidding. Congratulations on being selected. Just a suggestion I usually give to all the first-timers: keep your mouth shut, ears open and follow the UIC's instructions, not Ol' Smitty's who is at his 3,000th national and knows more about umpiring than the UIC will ever forget; or, at least, that's what HE believes. Remember, the UIC is the one who submits your rating to OKC.

BTW, the butterflies will go away after your first call.

I'll be at the 16A in Seattle. My first. :)

Mike,

Obviously the state of the game is going downhill fast. >8-)) Perhaps this will accelerate it.

Thanks for the tips.

How about hearing some of the veterans about the experiences of umpiring at Nationals, famous flounders, locker room banter, Hell night (Friday nights), memorable or not so memorable moments on and off the field?

Here is an off-field story from one of my nationals.

We were originally scheduled for Labor Day weekend, but some hurricane pushed us back to October. There were some last minute cancellations from teams so we all arrived on Wednesday but there were no games until Friday. A small group of us from various locations, some had worked together at previous nationals, planned on spending the day doing some sight seeing and whatever. One of us (not me) decided to pull a Starsky & Hutch or Dukes of Hazzard stunt and slide across the hood of the car. Well, he was a little low and didn't quite clear the hood on approach. This left a nice a$$ print in the front side panel. We decided on a quick fix hoping to dupe the rental agency and so we went in search of some dent removal gadget you may have seen in some infomercial. We found one at a local convenience type auto related store. It consisted of a handle that bridged the dent, and piece with threads to adhere to the dent and a bolt like spinny thingy that would pull the threaded piece and thereby fix the dent. The threaded piece had multiple 'head' attachments and was adhered to the car with glue from a glue gun. Well, we did not have a glue gun, but we did manage to borrow (permanently) someones lighter. So we spent about three hours burning our fingers trying to melt the glue to adhere to the gadget to fix the dent. It looked so simple on the commercial, just attach and pull and voila, no more dent.

While it wasn't so exciting tryiing to fix the dent, we did have a ton of laughs and will never forget that weekend.

Work hard, do as your instructed, and have fun.

Have fun with my buddy from Vancouver Power. I have an anecdote, but I don't know that Official Forum has enough bandwidth. Let's just say they didn't like my leadership skills in ending one argument, nor my snappy comeback when the shoe was on the other foot.

My advice would, as always, be to not say one consonant more than necessary to answer a question. He will work the umpires hard, especially if he thinks you might be coasting just a little.

As far as the AZ teams - Desert Thunder out of Tucson always seems to have good pitchers and both Hotshot teams are pretty good.

As usual, expect the Southern CA teams to do well.

Good Luck and have fun!

You promised you would keep quiet about this!:D

It wasn't me, in case any of you are wondering.

TOFU? (extraneous added text)

Yes,?

You never know where I will pop up do you?

:D