I opened the 2013 baseball season by umpiring a triple header on Saturday.  I did two plates followed by a base.  Not bad ball, a tad windy though.

The games were in Okotoks, starting at 11am and we finished up at 7:30pm so it was a pretty long day.  My legs were sore.  I am not used to getting into the strike zone after spending a winter doing pretty well nothing.  My feet were also sore, I am not used to standing all day.  I must be getting old.

So, I didn’t go to the level 3 clinic this year, I won’t be able to umpire in the Provincial Championships, that’s ok with me.  I submitted my availability for the entire summer.  Basically, I am available Wednesday nights (seeing as I work from home on Wednesday’s) and either Saturday or Sunday.  I don’t want to leave Blondie in her crate all day when I am at work then come home for a few minutes and leave her again all evening – not fair to the dog and I don’t trust her out of the crate, she is still a bit destructive.

So, if I do 2 or 3 games a week, that will give me some extra spending money and something to do.  I do plan on going back into coaching at some point, not sure when though.  I coached for a long time, many summers and I want a break from it for now.  I still haven’t won that elusive Provincial Championship so at some point, I will have to come back and go for that again.  For now, I will entertain myself with umpiring.

I have several games scheduled in the coming weeks so that will be good.  I hope that the weather will warm up a bit as well – not very baseball like out there right now.