Nationals
 

6 pairs of Fechheimers: $270
6 powder blue shirts: $150
2 pairs of shoes: $120
4 hats: $68
Getting chosen by the UIC to do the plate on the semifinals game: humbling.

Not letting him down: Priceless.


Damn, I'm tired. :)

http://www.brazzilbrief.com/images/s...brownnoser.gif Brown Noser

Wimp! ;):D

Wow, you spent $608.00 to do the Nationals? When I went to Sterling VA., I got two new hats, and just had the rest of my stuff dry-cleaned. My shoes are fairly new, so they got a good shine.

Way to go, Dave! :)

NIce Job dave, I wish I could have gotten away to see you there.

Nah, I didn't spend all of that just for the Nationals. Probably about $300 or so (but only made $200 from the tourney).

I'm totally fine with it, though. It's not like that gear suddenly goes to waste, and I want to look absolutely sharp when I get out there. Everything pressed and ironed that needs to be pressed or ironed, everything clean, everything fresh.

Nope, I just listened to what M.I. and his Assistant UICs told me to do, made the corrections they wanted me to make, and hustled my @$$ off every day. :)

Yeah, I don't have quite the same amount of energy I used to have before I quit smoking and gained 30 pounds, but I think I lost 5-10 pounds from this tourney alone. ;)

Al my last National (which will be my last national) I got four brand new pants, two base, two plate, the zipper broke on one, the clasp broke on two. I got new caps, a cap carrier, new shirts, and a new ball bag. Shoes were only a year old and in great condition. I drove 1200 miles to get there at my own expense. The hotel for the weeks stay cost me twice what I made in the tournament. I wore my goggles, UIC didn't like the goggles, so I didn't work Sunday, UIC never told me this (I did not get a review) but he did tell my Regional UIC, who told the State AUIC, who told my Zone UIC, who finally told me. So while I had good time, the frustration of the costs, the second hand info from the UIC six months later, three pairs of brand new pants not lasting two games, bursitis, arthritis, and a summer of men's slow pitch have combined for me to suffer extreme burn out. I don't care if I do another National tournament or even a regular game ever again. The joy is gone.

Bugg

I'm sorry to hear that you had such a negative experience, Bob. The UICs can really make or break a tourney for the umps. I was fortunate enough to have UICs give me an "evaluation" at the end of every game. With 45 umpires on multiple fields, it's difficult to devote a lot of time towards watching a particular set of umpires, but the effort was still made. Most crews got at least 10 minutes of "watch time" from the UIC or AUICs.

The feedback was generally sound and was definitely helpful. Even if I disagreed with something a UIC or AUIC said (which I never vocalized, btw), it still helped me to know what his/her expectations of my performance were for that tourney. The onus then falls upon me to either follow through with it or not follow through. I may not have agreed with everything that was said, but at least I knew what they wanted. I did my best to give exactly that to them. Fortunately, the majority of the corrections they wanted me to make were very, very minor, so it was easy to adjust.

You had to pay for your hotel room? I've never paid for a hotel, even in smaller local tournaments. Some of them weren't exactly the Ritz Carlton (Actually none of them were. :) ), but at least we were given a place to stay.

Like Ray Charles said..

Make it do what it do, baby.

Hope to see you on the field again, googles and all. You are a damn good umpire. Its a choice to do a national again. You are NIF now, so maybe some motivation is gone.. but IMO, you are due for and have paid your dues for a high level USA HE national.

Dont pay for stuff anymore.

what national could you have possibly gone to that didnt pay for your room? :confused:

It is possible, but should not at 1200 miles away.

Part of the reason many of the games use a 2-umpire system for the majority of their games (please don't start listing all the tournaments you have done with 3-umpires, I know they are out there, but is completely irrelevant to the point of the code change) and changed the percentage of "at large" and "rotational" assignments was solely to reduce the cost of transporting and housing so many umpires. IOW, to save money. Well, part of that deal is to use local umpires which they (tournament hosts) consider close enough to commute to the tournament.

So, yes, there are nationals which do not provide housing FOR SOME umpires.

Mike, I am WELL aware of the dynamics between local/out of town umpires.

I should have framed my question as such.... WHAT organization would have made you travel THAT FAR and not paid for your rooms?

Darrell,

I know you are aware, but I know it happens in ASA as well as others. Hosts are just as different from each other than the brand of ball offered by different sanctioning bodies. Maybe ASA should address what a reasonable distance may be for an umpire, or any other rep, to travel to be considered a "commute" and not require a room.

To use your area as an example, I'll be damned if I want to walk off the field in Tucson at 10pm after my fifth/sixth game of the day, drive back to Mesa only to be back on the field in Tucson at 8:00am the next morning. Yeah, on a map it doesn't look far and it is all Interstate Hwy and during the week, some people probably do that commute, but that is a long drive, even in AZ.

Of course, this is an extreme example, but some people who make these decisions are not always the sharpest pencil on the desk, if you know what I mean.:D