Alabama here I come
 

Looks as if I'll be moving to Alabama after 50 years in the Soprano . . . er, Garden State.

Any of you guys from Alabama?

Moving to the home of Dixie Softball, eh? :eek:

Hey congrats on.................... hmmmm... Alabama you say?


well congrats.

I'm a bama boy... what part you moving to?

I'm a bama boy... what part you moving to?

Probably in or near Hayden, where my cousins own a lot of land. At the moment, I'm investigating a house in the Village of Blount Springs.

Part of what's driving the move is financial. I now have a 4-bedroom ranch house here in NJ. The annual property taxes are $6,465. (That's better than the annual $13,535 I was paying in the 1990s, for the house where my kids grew up.) The house in Alabama is larger and nicer and much newer than my present house. Annual property taxes are $405, with a monthly maintenance assessment of $78.

For those of you not familiar with New Jersey, even with its high property taxes, its income tax that competes with New York City's, and its recent sales tax increase to 7%, the state has a $13 billion deficit. Taxes will go nowhere but up in the future.

not to mention radioactive food & water!

No wonder you are looking forward to bama!

I'm in Mobile, but there is a ton of good high school softball up there... you should fit in just fine.

WOW. Someones ain' spendin' yall's dollah's vare good is they?

Gotta get started on the lingo gm! That is a pretty area of Alabama, and very close to a lot of my family (the won't bite, but watch out anyway!) I have a sister in Birmingham, and one in Attalla (near Gadsden). Mom still kicking in the Attalla area also.

There is quite a bit of softball in Birmingham, and Gadsden also. Bot FP and SP fare well. ASA has a good presence as well as NSA. I'm not sure about USS(R)SA, or some of the others. AHSAA is in full swing, and there is plenty of work around the state. I am in central GA, about 6 miles from the Alabama line. Started calling HS for AHSAA this year, mainly to ween away from little ball (HS at least). Maybe we will meet on the field sometime. I have a couple of ASA contacts in AL, and have had oppurtunities to work tournies in several AL cities.

One thing though. We play ball nearly year round down here! Snow is real scarce! hope you won't miss it!

It has been a couple of decades since I have been there, but I remember Mobile as one of the prettier Gulf Coast cities. Is it still that way?

Depends. Downtown Mobile seemed to be in somewhat of a revitalization phase a couple years ago. But the big thing about Mobile isn't the city, but the manner in which a visiting umpire is treated.

I was down there a few years back and have never been treated better. From the pre-tournament backyard BBQ to the post-tournament steak dinner at the complex to being treated to a minor league ball game at Hank Aaron Stadium, everything was first class.

BTW, Wade, Matt was there with me that trip. Great time.

I got a meeting with him in April.. I made a proposal and he has questions and concerns :eek:

well we'll see how it goes.. you gotta work hard to give freely of your time and money 'round this place.. :D

Mobile is doing well, we're in the middle of the Boeing v. Northrup-Grumman controversy, hoping they don't take the plane away. Thyssen Kryup just made plans to build a huge steel mill here and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. just financed a 6 track motorsports park here as well. Some of the south part of the county is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina, but otherwise we're doing well. The azaleas are in full bloom and the highs are in the mid 70's with a gentle breeze off the bay... it's a great time to be a Mobilian.

Bama Born & Bleed Crimson
 

Limestone County Wishes you the best (just West of Huntsville). First year for softball but 15 yr. baseball vet. Called quarter-finals at Corner HS a few years ago. Welcome to the Heart of Dixie. :)

Anything south of Birmingham is another country... The northern half of the state is the superior portion....

:eek: Ooohhh, baby! Here we go!

Wow, much like the USA itself. That is ironic.

:eek:

If that were true, that would be ironic. :cool:

You ever been to sand mountain and hung out with the snake handlers? I don't know if I'd rather have to deal with the hillbillies or the rednecks. Although there are some backwards folks in this state (like every state), I don't think you can make a generalized statement like that. Mobile, which is absolutely south of Birmingham isn't another country...

HEY WATCH IT!!

My family roots are imbedded deep in northwest, and northeast Alabama!

Come to think about it, there were some snakehandlers and rednecks, and hillbillies, and Rube Burrows the famous (sort of) train robber.

I chose to live in Georgia. I married a gal from here, kinda had to, all my Alabama cousins were already married!

My Granddad was from Lamar County, the heart of Rube Burrows country. I didn't mean to insult my fellow alabamians, but i felt the need to defend those of us who live south of the Magic City.

Alas, Vernon!

Mom grew up there. Hankins was the family name. I haven't been there in about 20 years or so, but still have relatives there.

Ha! My folks are from Millport, my great grandfather was the Ford dealer there for years, used to bring Charlie Stripling down from Nashville during the Great Depression to come play at the dealership, I don't know if it helped him sell many cars, but it helped him get elected to two terms in the State House. Waldrop was their name, there's lots of Waldrop stuff still in Millport although they're all gone.

Drove to Alabama last week to look at properties. Stopped to watch some of a softball game between Mortimer Jordan High School and (I think) Curry High School (yellow/gold uniforms). The quality of play seemed pretty good, especially for small high schools, and the field was spectacularly well groomed. Got myself a Jordan baseball cap. The umps wore AHSAA hats, but otherwise the same uniforms/colors I've seen everywhere else.

Also drove up to Cullman and saw where a tornado had ripped some houses up a few months ago. Visited Birmingham, too. UAB was playing a baseball game that evening, but I couldn't stop to watch.

Everybody I met was very friendly. I'm definitely going to move there.

Anybody looking for a house in the Garden State, please get in touch. And don't believe those stories about the "Soprano State." I've lived in NJ for 50 years, and I've known only two guys who got "whacked."

NJ might consider that for their state motto! :D

Apparently, no one has indoctrinated you on the difference between a yankee and a damn yankee.:eek:

On this trip, they treated you as the former. Once you settle in, you may get the treatment reserved for the latter.:D

the difference between a yankee and a damn yankee

You do have a point there. I am aware of how that crucial difference is defined.

My father, born in Alabama in 1926, told me that it wasn't until he got to college that he learned, to his great surprise, that the term damn yankee was in fact two words.

Weren't they a really bad 80s/90s hair band featuring Ted Nugent?

How long did you have to hold that sign up until they came and fixed it? :)

run forrest!.....run!

Backyard BBQ
 

When I was there for the Men's A Industrial I was treated to an incredible backyard bbq...the steaks were awesome...and the beer was ice cold!

They took great care of us.

Although, if I remember correctly we went out until the wee hours of the morning on our last night there and I missed my flight on tuesday of the labor day weekend. Getting home was quite difficult.

Mobile took great care of all of the umpires.

That is exactly how I was treated when there for a Major. However, our tournament was so abbreviated, they also took us to a game at Hank Aaron Stadium with the offer of going a second night. Instead, we went to tour the USS Alabama and headed to Pensacola for a night.

They had steaks waiting after the championship game. The aroma of the Worcestshire marinaded steaks wafted over the field. The catcher says "Wow, that smells good". I told him that I'm going to miss my dinner because his team (winners) were still down a run in the fourth. He told me no problem and his team proceeded to put up about twenty runs and ended the tournament. Who says the catcher isn't our best friend?

But you are right, umpires are treated like kings in 'Bama.

Hey SRW! Lookit what these guys are doing. Maybe we should send a link to Don Ho, Nap and the Lock Box to show them that yes, we should spend more than a buck a person for hospitality at a national. ;)

Actually, SRW did a wonderful job at our national last summer. He pulled off a great dinner featuring Washington's finest: seafood from the Sound, and onions, corn and taters from Yakima. It's just that he caught so much crap from some of the, um, hierarchy. While foie gras and caviar might be over the top, it's really quite difficult to spend too much money and do too much for hospitality.

For those of you in 'Bama and elsewhere who do hospitality right, thank you.

(Mike, you're lucky. I DID miss dinner at a western national once. Went to the restaurant after my game was done -- kept telling my HP partner to hurry up -- and was told the kitchen is closed. No sorry, no kiss my donkey, no nothin.)

When I was there, it was all home cooking by the local association, no worrying about restaurants or outside concerns.

Yeah no schitt.

The crap I caught was about the budget. They only budgetted $2000 for hospitality for both nationals - and I spent about $1100 on the 18A. So they were giving me crap for only having $900 to spend on the Men's D. Nevermind the fact that I had 5 tournament days and they had 3... and that I had overbought on water and sundries that they used. Frustrating.

Even though it's almost winter, I figured that, if I want to umpire next season, I had better make connections with some of the important people in Alabama umpiring. So today I dropped in on the state UIC at his place of business.

http://i35.tinypic.com/x4kwie.jpg

Please tell me there was banjo music playing somewhere...