Your Basic Fun Early April Day.....

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

ALMOST warm for while there today - perhaps 53 or so! Worked a 7/8 grade (in NY, 'modified') game with one of our brand new officials - in fact, it was his VERY FIRST GAME! And of course, he had the plate... After watching him put his leg guards on before his shoes, and a few other things, got him straightened out, as we waited for the visitors to show up...and waited...we finally go up to do the check of the home team's gear, and then the visitors showed up, and started warming up....Meanwhile the home coach is asking us how to make out the lineup card!

We then catch our only break of the day, as the visiting coach comes up to us, and say he only wants to play two hours, as (and this is verbatim!) his team is not very good....its their first time outdoors..etc, etc...so we say sure, just ask the other coach! So let's do the math here:

A brand new umpire +
A brand new coach +
A not so good team to start, who is on the field for the first time =

an advil about an hour ago

Actually, my partner was pretty good - we train our newbies pretty well - its the little things that were annoying. The only thing I yelled at him about during the game was the newbie habit of verbalizing swinging strikes, and we did talk after the game about things.

The home team also was actually pretty good for very early in the season with 11-13 yr olds - their pitcher could throw some real strikes, and the few chances the fielders got were handled ok. The visitors, however....YUK....mainly cause their pitchers couldn't find home with a GPS...I must've walked three miles walking back and forth between the various positions from all the walks, wild pitches and passed balls.....fun......

The best part is that I have no more scheduled modified games until the end of May - when most of the teams have actually LEARNED something...

the final after probably 5 innings - 28-2