Majordave

I have heard of a "slash" bunt. Batter shows bunt then swings about one-half to three-quarters full swing after drawing the infielders in with the initial showing of a bunt. Is that what you mean? I have also had drag bunts-bunt down first base line with while batter breaks out of box. Maybe it is bunt intentionally "pushed" down the third base line? At this point, we don't know. Please enlighten us.

I took a file and made notches in my indicator last year after reading about it here or on some other forum. You won't believe how much it helps. I use one notch on 1, 2 on 2 and so on. Takes about 5-10 minutes. Try it, you'll like it.

I have been told by MLB, MiLB and NCAA D-1 umpires that there is no neighborhood play on televised games. It is that simple. No other reason.

Still working on the details. It looks like a full on go with tourney. Camp/clinic for umpires depends upon students. That is what I am working on now. If you need solid info. Plan on week after 4th of July for the Tourney. I will confirm rooms, etc. with TD tomorrow night and let you know.

In the Lexington, KY area almost all of the nicer fields have a frontal dugout extension about four feet out front like a porch with a fence to protect those standing/sitting on the "porch". Unless it is cold or windy or hot very few players or coaches actually sit in the dugouts. I have seen players not in the game fighting over a bucket to sit on. Since they are behind the 3.5 to 4 foot high fence they are "in" the dugout. Sometimes when it is warm but not hot it looks like a bunch of lizards out sunning themselves on rocks. It helps the coaches who call pitches from buckets see and be seen. I'm sure that it is a solution driven by those who do not like to be inside the confines of the dugout during a game. Not really a problem for me just another dead ball area to look after.

I found this post on "Neighborhood Play / Phantom tag" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Post Of The Month March, 2009"

I have added today's game three report to my blog for anyone interested.

As Mike said, you can wash them cold water, drip dry, cool iron or low heat mild tumble in a dryer and touch up with an iron. Remember that with wool, a high heat will make the wool shine and with nylon/polyester a high heat will melt the material or make it shiny as well. If you must wash and iron then put a thin cloth like a pillow case or t-shirt over the pants and iron through the cloth layer and the pants. That's enough Martha Stewart for today don't ya think? (grin). I know more stupid stuff...... My wife says I am like Cliff Clavin from Cheers. "Well Norm, it's a little known fact that......."

If you want pants to last. Have not worn the ultimates but they are not as good as poly-wools. I had GD. They were nice and light and looked okay but did not wear well for me. The picked a couple places. Whatever you do, do NOT get combos. They suck for both plate and bases.

2 pairs 4 sale in classifieds-see my listing there. Honig's Poly-Wool Slacks 36R new, tags on, unhemmed. Price: 155.00 USD Honig's Poly-Wool Slacks 36R new, tags on, unhemmed. Base and Plate. Ordered them then found some used, nearly new. I've got three pairs of each now. That's plenty for me. I will sell them both for $155 shipping included. USPS Parcel Post. IF you want Priority Mail or Express or UPS you pay the difference. I prefer Paypal. No smoking home. Never been worn. Perfect, brand new condition with tags still attached.

I will blog in detail about them on my blog on this site. Please read about it there. Some amazing baseball and weather today. Absolutely amazing. I may never see anything like today the rest of my baseball career. Edit: Blog entry is posted now at 8:05 pm.

My first college game (NAIA) was to be tomorrow at noon. Game is moved up earlier, a little bit, to 8 am! and is now a double header instead of a single. WTF? Of course I accepted the change. It is now 7:50 pm. Time to go to bed. Fortunately it is only a 20 minute drive for me and probably shorter than that at 6:30 am when I plan to leave. I say again, WTF? College ball at 8 am on Saturday? Have any of you ever had to work high school or above that early? I have not even had T-ball or Little League minors that early. We'll see how it goes. If it goes.

In case you were wondering, GD stands for Gerry Davis although from what I have heard and seen about knee and scissors stances over the long run they should be called the "GD" stance. I went to Tony Thompson's International Camp this last fall. I got video from 4 cage work sessions, two with Ed Rapuano, one with Paul Nauert and one with AAA-International League Umpire Brian Kennedy. I got all positive commentary on my stance, view of the zone, head height, consistency, timing, etc. Not one of them suggested any changes to anything I did with stance. Brian suggested that I not glance down with my eyes at the plate before pitch delivery so as to not take my eyes of pitcher with the ball. Ed actually said that it was a good thing if I didn't move my head when I looked. They all three corrected and re-corrected plenty of other guys. I did not get anything but complements and was used as an example for consistency, view of the plate, timing. Ed did say I should relax more after the pitch is called. I like to stand with my hands on my hips (authoritarian stance) while waiting for pitcher to come set/begin delivery. He wanted me to just back up and stand relaxed and look around with no runners on base. I think I was just nervous while in the cage with the tape running but I remembered what he said and was able to relax during my first scrimmage plate work this spring and the last couple of scrimmages I worked after returning from the camp. I will watch the tape again tomorrow morning or tonight before my first game to get psyched and focused. I noticed that the Carl Childess Baseball Library link over on officiating.com is not working and did not work this past weekend. I have copied and saved the Gerry Davis Stance articles so if anyone wants them, PM me with a request and your e-mail address and I can send to you as MSWord e-mail attachments. Again, my new mantra: Let's all get better together.

the guy setting this up from the teams/coaches side, the "TD" if you will. It is a USSSA sanctioned 10u World Series. Dates are July 8-12 with main host area, Danville and Harrodsburg, KY. I prefer bigger boy ball but my understanding is that these guys play real baseball (OBR rules) with some NFHS style safety rules overlayed (FPSR, collision rule, pitcher innings/pitch counts, etc.) Games usually go quickly and they start early in the day but do not play into the wee hours of the morning. He confirmed the comped rooms for umpires thing. Still a lot of details to work out but we now have a green light and a set of dates. He mentioned some other USSSA state tournaments but will provide that info to me in a detailed e-mail sometime this weekend. All that being said, HELP! If you think you want in, let me know. (PM would probably be best-include contact info like phones and e-mails and short resume of umpire experience) I will start making a list and contact all who are interested. Don't know pay scale yet but I am sure it won't be all that much. I think the real deal is the potential for an umpire camp run by (Ex-)Professional and NCAA umpires for youth umpires held the two or three days before the tournament and then early games worked by campers earning back their camp fee with evaluations by the camp staff and rapid improvement potential. I will need an umpire equipment vendor and t-shirts/polos for instructors, etc., etc., etc.... Sounds like a big undertaking. I will focus on the BBQ throwdown/showdown, Brian's beer making lessons/class (with samples?) and the camaraderie to get me (us) through. Ideas? Suggestions? Volunteers? Fire away.

Sauce on your meat is an option not a requirement with my BBQ. It does not need sauce but sauce surely enhances the experience. I alternate between sauce and no sauce bites.

Us to use the CCA manual for pre-game meeting of umpires. There is a checklist page and we both just open that up and go down the page discussing things. If there is a rotation question or issue we have it right there to refer to. I liked it so much in college games last year that I started doing it in HS games. Some of those older guys really balked at first. Now they know that I want to do it and I will do it anyway so they just listen and go with it. A couple have remarked that it really helps. I know it does. You can never be perfect but you can try.

I believe it is the middle two weekends of July.

Beer, mustard, spices, brown sugar, soy, lemon, ......... I used to call it Nancy's Sweet Stuff because I did it tangy without the sweet and it was good. My wife asked me to make it sweeter so I tried brown sugar and Nancy's Sweet Stuff was born. We had to change the name due to conflict of interest. That title was already taken by something else....... We renamed it Cassi's Sweet and Sassy after our daughter. Brian-Apple tree? Hickory for pork baby! I do use apple juice and some other stuff in the injection blend.

I smell a Ribs/BBQ throwdown coming on. IF we could only find a place convenient for all of us to meet, work some games and get our Beer, BBQ and umpire thing on. I do have an idea. Just a thought. The local program that I work and assign umpires for here in Danville has bid on a USSSA World Series to be conducted on about six fields in this area. IF they get the bid and IF you guys are interested, I can assign anyone I want to games..... The Tourney Director mentioned comped rooms for umpires at local motels...... Sooo, just maybe, we can call game on, Q on, Brew on. Whaddya Think? An outside chance we might be putting on an umpire clinic on to try and train newer umpires for local youth leagues and offer them professional instruction. We have the former #2 at Evans living locally and he has expressed some interest in umpire clinics and training for amateur umpires although he has no desire to work games anymore and a couple of other former professional umpires that live locally that work college in my college association. One is former AAA and now an SEC/ACC/Sun Belt umpire and the other is a former AA, now a Big East, MAC and OVC umpire. I am waiting to hear on the WS bid before I pull the trigger and start planning this thing. Anyway, just a thought.

There are plenty of good BBQ dishes that do not drown the meat in sauce. In fact, the best BBQ barely needs any sauce. I inject whole slabs of pork ribs with a solution by using a turkey injector, dry rub and smoke with hickory for hours til I can slide the bones out of the meat. I make a sauce that would make a dog turd taste good but I don't let anyone drown the meat in it. It goes on the side via a squirt bottle. The carolina style pork I make is chopped "bark" from pork shoulder "butts" which has been injected, dry rubbed, smoked and pulled apart. I use mostly the outer dark, dark, brown bark and chop it with two cleavers on a cutting board then drown it in hot spicy apple cider vinegar sauce with black, red crushed peppers, salt, celery seeds, garlic and onion powders soaked in the vinegar for a few days/weeks. It is a crowd pleaser. The "pulled", never sliced or chopped remainder of the shoulder is served dry with sauce on the side. The texas beef brisket is a whole 20 lb plus brisket that has been cut into three or four large hunks to get more bark, dry rubbed, smoked for 14 or more hours over mesquite and charcoal then sliced thin and served with sauce on the side. Better than steak. I smoke chicken wings with seasoning rubbed on the whole wing and smoke them over mesquite for three or four hours. No sauce required but they do taste good with sauce. This is my "chicken wings with a tan". I am bragging but I do know what I am doing. I am an equal opportunity BBQ lover/cook. Just Smoke it!

That is my other passion after umpiring. I can help you there if you need it. I regularly smoke meats in the spring/summer/fall. I have some folks wanting to bankroll me for a restaurant as there is no real BBQ here. I don't think I really want to run a restaurant as I have too many other interests and it would essentially enslave me. I have a name picked out though. "Q" . I envision it to be a upscale sort of a rib shack with barn wood, stools, a bar, private party room with 70" big screen and a weekly "chef's table" of other items, small bandstand with blues bands on weekends. Wings and things in bar area with lots of sports on TV, contests, etc. Not ready to give up my day job yet.

Chef. I recently worked a night as a guest chef (without pay except eat what I cooked) for a local restaurant/watering hole where I live. I lunched here for years and the owner took a leap last fall to obtain a liquor license and open in the evenings for dinner. I now teach a Hospitality Marketing business class that introduces high school students to the restaurant, catering and hotel/motel industries. Anyway, I cook a lot and teach cooking. The owner, Joe and I were discussing ways to get people into his restaurant in the evenings, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays. I suggested guest chef night as I had read about it somewhere. He liked the idea and asked me if I would. The local newspaper got a hold of it and came to take pictures and write a story. I'm now semi-famous in the little burg I live in for something other than putting people in jail and the dumbass that quit law for teaching and umpiring. (grin) Links to the story and photos Story link http://www.amnews.com/public_html/?module=displaystory&story_id=47454&format=html Pictures link http://amnews.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=22049649&event=679670&CategoryID=45425&picnum=10&move=F#Image Don't laugh. I really can cook. Everyone's plates were completely clean that night.

A balk for that? I would bet not. And if they did, they were probably the rule book geek that never played the game that we all love to hate.

I don't see any advantage. I usually killed it when I coached so my pitchers would save their energy for the late innings. It is probably either nervous energy or poor coaching or a combination of both. I have never seen a gorilla arm pitcher pick any runners off with the arm hang and dangle/swing. It doesn't fool anyone. Some of the teenagers probably think it looks cool in some weird way. "Oooh look at my bulging biceps. I'm freakin' huge." (grin) Anyway, I don't call it.

Seriously, I would only call this one IF, and only if, opposing coach complains and then only after I have warned at least once. What advantage, if any, does anyone gain by doing this? Why does it matter? Who does it matter to except the OOO's that I hate working with. This one ranks up there with the "gorilla arm" balk that I am sure will start a firestorm here as it usually does on the other forums when mentioned and discussed. There is no advantage gained by the defense and nothing wrong except it is not expressly allowed by the rules. My advice is: DON'T be "that guy" that calls those balks without someone complaining first. My two cents, YMMV.