AZ State HS SB Championships
 

Two members of this prestigious board have been selected to work HS Championship games here in Arizona this weekend.

Az.Ump will be working the plate for the 4A Div II game on Saturday evening.

Yours truly will be at third base for the 5A Div I game on Friday evening
This game will be shown via a live stream at AIA 365 - Bringing Arizona's High School Communities to the World at 8:00 pm Pacific time. It will also be left up on the site for viewing later.

I would welcome any feedback and or comments from any of you that are able to view the game.

That's cool. Congrats to both of you Andy.:cool:

Hey, I've got a FL 4a Semi-final Friday... is that worth anything???
:confused:

Hugo - sure congrats to you too. That's a big game.

It's all Andy's fault (with a little Darrell in the mix) . He taught me well. It will be the end of a great year with a 5a quarter final yesterday, 4a1 semi final tomorrow and the 4a2 state championship Saturday night. Same 3man crew for all three. Made them work a LL game last week to get the kinks out. :D Yesterday went great. 3-2 game great rotations. Missed a strike though. :o

Steve, thank you.

Hugo, congratulations it counts. We all know they play great ball in Florida. Enjoy and have fun!!!

Next year I will probably be fetching waters and new balls for the many deserving umpires I have the honor of working with.

Paul

I was fortunate enough to do a state final a few years ago. It was a great game 3-2. I'm at the finals every year since then - toting water & towels or whatever. That's a really good experience too - sharing in & watching those who are often on their first "big stage".

Congratulations, guys.

It's not AZ, but WA...

Angler and I, along with a bunch of others (2 others from Seattle) were selected to work the 3A/4A State HS Tourney - our highest classification - over Memorial Day weekend (Fri/Sat).

WOW - It was better than I thought - Nat'l #1 ranked Naples (FL) against Nat'l #25 Bartram!! (Naples won 3-0).

Today I'm watching the State Finals - #1 ranked Naples vs. Nat'l #2 ranked Dunnellon (FL)

It is now tied at 3 in the top of the 8th.

If any of you guys get a chance to see the replay.. go for it.
It's a classic...
Great pitching, a few errors, a few great plays (and a couple of interesting calls!!)

Okay, you had a great game. That's outstanding and something we can all appreciate. However, GMAFB about the "nat'l" ranking. It is complete BS.

Not sure what GMAFB means.

I'm not really up on rankings and stuff, it was a thrill when I found that out..
I added that to share some of the excitement.

No. 2 Dunnellon faces. No. 1 Naples for 2010 Florida state softball championship | Ocala.com

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps...l/rankings.htm (USA Today from May 6 - Dunnellon was #6)

Needless to say, everyone in THIS area plays it up.

I realize National rankings may leave something to be desired and they are opinions rather than head to head play, and each game is a new game, etc, etc.

Its not even that. Who sees enough high school teams in any sport to be able to make even a slightly intelligent "guess" as to how they would stand against all the schools in the nation? Same with the All-American HS teams.

Yes, locals and promoters are going to make a big thing of it, but that doesn't make it valid.

Yeah, I know what you mean.... but it adds color to the story.

I'll still ice up that beer (from the other discussion board) if it ever gets sent:D

Think you have a long wait for that one :rolleyes:

I had a game like that a few years ago in a HS tournament.

The number 1 HS team in the nation vs the number 3 HS team in the nation.

I realize that nationally ranking HS teams is next to, if not impossible, but it was proabably the most memorable HS softball game I have ever worked.

Just a great game between two very good teams.

So how were the AZ games??
 

Andy and AZ ump.

Didn't mean to Hijack the thread - how were yours?

Thanks for asking....

My game was good....two teams that had been ranked 1 and 2 in the state all year. Two great pitchers, one of them considered the top HS pitcher in the country, headed to AZ State next year.

Very intense game, about 2500 people watching. 0-0 through 5 innings, only a few baserunners as far as second base. Visiting team (#2 ranked team) gets a runner on (HBP) in the top of the sixth, next batter hits a line drive home run to center field.

In the bottom of the 7th, home team first two batters set down, then they load the bases. Final batter, 3-2 count, called out looking at strike 3.

2-0 final. You can watch the game at the link in my original post in the thread.

COOL:D

But wait, (as if to prove IRISH's point) - I thought I had the top pitching recruits in the country!!!! :eek:Going to ALA and FL (I think)!! LOL

We had a similar exciting game -
I think I'm going through a little let down and depression as I don't have any post season college games so I'm done for now...

(Our local travel ball just ain't the same)

I'll look up your game when I get off work...

My high school post season here in Pa has not yet started. We're in the last week of regular season play.
But my college season continues - with a D2 regional last week and a D2 superregional, as the alternate, this weekend.
And we've got another semi-regular poster here doing the D2 national.

Nice

My DD, who is on one of the two teams playing the state championship series for the AAAA division (the largest) in SC, said she'd like to play the champions of other states just to see what competition in other states is like.

There was a very good team from NC at one of the invitational tournaments we didn't play this year. The HSL now limits tournaments to 5 games maximum, which has kept away out of state teams that used to come.

Even then is wouldn't be worth anything. There are no standards within states let alone between states. Even eligibility varies.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see something like a HS championship, but all you would have is a load of parents and coaches turning it into a business, cheating every step of the way which would turn the NFHS into the NCAA and pretty much screw it up for everyone.