Kevin's Ramblings…

I umpired the two semi-finals in the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament today at 10 and 1pm. I was on the plate for the 10am game, for Calgary, it was pretty warm. I think I’ve gotten soft since living here. It was 25C or so, no humidity of course and I was thinking it was smoking hot. Yeah, sure… Compared to Southern Ontario, today was a cool day… It was a well played game, enjoyable.

The second semi featured the AA Longhorns from Calgary, always nice when one of the host teams makes it that far. They were outplayed and ended up losing by mercy rule in the 5th inning.

I didn’t stick around for the final. The dogs needed to go out and be fed, I’m such a good dog Dad.

This marks the end of my umpiring in Calgary. I’ve umped on and off for 7 years here, the last 2 seasons quite a few games. It was enjoyable and I’ve met a lot of good people through umpiring. I’m going to miss it, but do plan in picking it up where I’m moving to. I wish all the guys in CABUA well, as well as the player-umps from Babe Ruth.

When I got home, I discovered one of the dogs had broken into a box of canned goods that I had on the floor. I suppose one of the packages of instant mashed potatoes must have had some sort of scent to it. When the dogs came in from outside, Blondie and Twix were wagging their tails, Hera jumped on the couch with her ears back and she wouldn’t look at me. When I asked her who had gotten into the box, she whined and rolled over. I think I found the guilt party… LOL

It’s only circumstantial evidence, but I think it’s enough to convict. Oh well, guess she got bored. I’ll know how not to leave a box on the floor, at least the box is still usable.

Tomorrow is my last day for packing and cleaning. I don’t have much left to do, should be a smooth day. I’ll be picking up my friend who’s looking after the dogs around 2. We are having BBQ steak for dinner and roasted potatoes. I’m hungry thinking about it now.

The move starts first thing Monday morning. I’ll leave my place to get the truck around 630. Hopefully it will go well.ive moved often enough that I’m becoming an expert, so I don’t expect any issues.

Had two ball games today as the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament entered the playoff round.

Both games were done using the 4-man umpiring system.

In the first game, I was at second base, a position I hadn’t done before. It was a good game, one for team pride I guess, I believe both teams were winless going in. It was tied until the 7th, the visitors went ahead by a run and then held the home side in the bottom.

The afternoon game was an elimination game, the winner moving to the semis tomorrow and the loser going home. The AAA Calgary Longhorns fell short and their season ended. I’ll be umpiring the winner tomorrow at 10am, behind the plate.

I’m also doing the second semi final tomorrow at 1. It sort of throws a wrench into my packing plans, but I’ll just have to finish tomorrow night and Sunday morning.

It’s been an enjoyable tournament, some good ball has been played. I’d expect tomorrow’s semis to be even better. Too bad I can’t stay for the finals.

Enjoy your weekend, it doesn’t feel like a Friday to me since I was off all week.

The round robin portion of the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament wrapped up last night, I was umpiring at first base.

The game started out well, it was a team from Idaho versus the AAA home club, the Longhorns. Idaho pulled ahead early and the Longhorns weren’t able to catch up, finishing the tournament with a 1-2 record. Idaho went 3-0 and as a result, have today off, I believe. I was speaking with the first base coach and he’s looking forward to seeing Calgary a bit.

I have a double header today, 10am and 1pm. Guess I’m losing some packing time, but I should be able to wrap that up when I get home this afternoon.

Tomorrow, I’ll wrap up my umpiring in the tournament, and for Babe Ruth, in the 10am semi-final behind the plate. The other semi goes at 1pm and then I might return to watch the 4pm final, if my packing is done.

Speaking of packing, and moving, I’ve got confirmation from the property management company that noon on July 30 works with them to move in. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

This also marks the end of my first week off of work. It was a pretty relaxing week off, I enjoyed it. The next few days will be hectic. Enjoy your weekend.

I umpired a double header in the Babe Ruth Regional Tournament today, 10am and 1pm.

I was on the plate for the 10am game. Not a bad game at all. We got through 5 innings quickly enough and then it slowed right down. We ended up finishing in just over 2 hours. The afternoon game took longer, the visiting team rallied for 9 runs in the top of the 6th and the home team didn’t catch up.

I returned home, let the dogs out and fed them, they were happy to see me. I decided to procrastinate on my packing some more and go back to the ball park. Initially, I was just going to have some BBQ for dinner then head home. Instead, I scored the game and it was a long one, just over 3 hours long and 31 runs scored in total.

Tomorrow, I don’t umpire until the 7pm game and I will start packing, despite certain people not believing me. It’s got to get done and I’m the only one doing it.

So, the plan is to sleep in a bit, if I can. Go to the dog park, maybe let the dogs play in the river a bit then head home and pack. I think that’ll earn me an afternoon nap, then back to baseball in the evening.

I got my umpiring schedule for the Cal Ripken World Series today as well. In the 4 day long preliminary round, I do a total of 9 games. Should be a good time, I’m looking forward to it. We head for Missouri on August 1.

For now, I’m calling it a day. Good night.

Today was day 4 of my vacation.

I’m behind on packing for my move. This should not surprise those who know me. I procrastinate. I’m very good at it.

Today I had an easy morning. Finally took recycling in for a refund. I don’t think I’ve taken any recycling in since I’ve been in this house, so 20 months or so. Anyway, it totalled to just over $24. Went to the dog park, although it was damp so we didn’t spend long there.

I watched part of the early game in the tournament that Babe Ruth is hosting. There has been some good ball.

This afternoon, I napped, like I like to do when I’m off. I umpired the 4pm game. It was a long one, extra innings, ended in the 9th at 2 hours, 55 minutes.

Just relaxed with the dogs when I got home. Who wants to pack at night?

Tomorrow, I have a double header, 10 and 1. I’m on the plate for the 10am game, and umpiring 3rd base for the afternoon game. Should be another good day of ball.

I finally got information about the Cal Ripken World Series. We’ll either have 2 or 3 games a day during the preliminary round. That’ll be busy, and tiring. My roommate is from the US, so that’s good, I was sort of afraid that I’d get a roomie from Japan and he’d speak 10 words of English. I’m looking forward to the experience.

So, tomorrow afternoon, after I get home and freshen up, I’ll make a dent in my packing. Thursday will be good too as I don’t umpire until the late game, 7pm.

Monday, moving day, will be here before I know it.

Day one of my vacation is in the books. It was a pretty relaxing day. No umpiring, which is odd since I’ve umpired almost every Saturday since the beginning of May.

The dogs and I went to the park the morning just before 10. I was able to sleep in a bit, after letting them out and feeding them of course, 530, pretty well every morning. I was able to keep them out of the river which isn’t an easy feat.

Got a little shopping done, Walmart. The store was crazy busy, I suppose not too surprising on a Saturday at noon.

The umpires for next week’s Babe Ruth Regional Tournament was at 130. Cleared up rules and what not. Should be a fun tournament.

The rest of the day was non-descript, the dogs and I just relaxed.

Tomorrow there is absolutely nothing on the agenda. I think we’ll go back to the dog park and maybe I’ll let the dogs go for a dip since I know they want to.

It’s been a while since I’ve had nothing going on for a whole weekend. I guess I should have arranged for boxes to be delivered for my move today, could have spent two days organizing and packing. Who am I kidding though, I would have put it off.

Hitting bed soon and I plan on sleeping in again on Sunday. Sounds like a good start to the day.

I was umpiring an exhibition game tonight between the Cal Ripken team that’s going to the World Series in a couple of weeks and the Babe Ruth Longhorns AAA team over in Dover.

The skies didn’t look particularly friendly and the forecast was calling for scattered thunderstorms.

I asked my partner who was umpiring on the bases to watch for lightning as the conditions were perfect for it.

We started the game on time and got to the 3rd or 4th batter when the game was paused for lightning. This is an automatic 20 minute delay.

Although it didn’t clear and the clouds weren’t moving at all, we restarted. We got a couple of more batters in when I paused the game, another lightning flash in a different direction this time.

After about 10 minutes, it started lightly raining. A few minutes later and the rain really started to come down, so, back to my car I go.

After another 10 minutes of heavy rain, we decided to call the game. I’m unsure how wet the diamond got, but it may have been unplayable.

So, I’m in my car, pouring rain with all of my plate gear on and can’t change, otherwise, I’ll be soaked. I decided to drive home wearing all my stuff, I’ll change in the garage at home.

All in all, I think I drove longer than I umpired tonight. Oh well, we’ve had generally good weather this season thus far.

This game likely won’t get replayed, the younger Longhorns teams are in their Regional Tournament next week. I hope the Cal Ripken guys are able to find some other competition to hone their skills.

I’m dry now anyway. More umpiring tomorrow evening, hope the weather is better.