Nationals
 

Bugbobs post has got me wondering.
Could you guys/gals give me some insight on your nationals. Anybody got some bad moments? How long do your nationals usually run?
Ours up here usually run 7 or 8 days. I've been lucky enough to have great weather for mine but I know of a few who had bad weather and as the week went on some of their games were starting at 2:00 & 4:00 am.
On my last National we had a small contest going among us umps, ( don't tell anybody as we are not supposed to be doing these things, sh shhhhhhh),
At the beginning of the week we all wrote down 2 items, one good " say a free meal " and one not so good " say you clean someones shoes" etc . Well the thing was for every ejection during the day, that night as we were mellowing out with those brown pops you had to draw one from the tin. Well I had an ejection and the next morning I had to clean all of the plate shoes worn the previous day.
Anyways does anyone have some good or bad stories of their National experience that they'ed like to share?

Dale

You damn Canadians have it backwards again. If you ejected the player, the other umpires should be shining YOUR shoes for the rest of the week! :D

Ya i know but that was the tag I drew out of the hat so I did.:mad:

A highschool friend of mine were sharing a room and doing our first National together in 2003. The phone rang early one morning. I answered and the person on the other line wanted to know where my partner was because he was supposed to be on the plate in 10-15 minutes. Our hotel was about 20 minutes away. I told my partner who was in mid slumber. After putting on his duds, we looked at each other and almost said simultaneously, "I guess that means you won't be on the dish on Sunday." :rolleyes:

Recommendation: Always have a backup plan for getting up on time. Bring more clothes than you will use. Expect the unexpected.

And finally, relax and enjoy yourself. Ive done three of these now (last one being 18-A in College Station) and had a blast every time.