markdewdney

Anyone wanna make a bet?

Oh, for goodness sakes. Football, baseball and basketball ALL celebrate on the field, and the bad behaviour FREQUENTLY spills over. Would you rather they spilled out into the Vancouver streets? It was irresponsible, but the girls apologized. They weren't being malicious - they just didn't think. Sorry for sounding like I have no sense of humour (I do, I swear), but we Canadians get criticized for being too meek and laughed at for being so polite- then we behave American for one night and we get raked over the coals? Oh, come on. (thanks for the congratulations, btw...and your gals scare us year in and year out. Your program's going to be a good one.) Now let's see how the boys do.... :banghead:

Sorry, guys, not ducking your comments - I just hadn't logged in for awhile. I appreciate the "don't leave the rest of us to clean up your mess" comment. That's absolutely true, I didn't think of that, and I'll take that into consideration down the road. It's worth pointing out that I've got quite the rep already around the league, and was told to lay off last year; I'd had a game with eight EJs (pitcher/catcher/manager on both sides due to beanballs, then BR and 1b for mc) and had attracted a bit of a "Dirty Harry" rep. That definately figured into it - I thought, "SH*#, if I throw out the CENTER FIELDER..." So, comments appreciated. Since then, we have a new UIC and Commissioner anyways, so resume ejections. :banghead:

My first...kinda a long story, but you'll appreciate the trip, believe me; I'd been a player for 2 years, known for my sense of humour and pranks - then got cut in my 3rd year. I even appreciated the way the coach cut me (I knew it was coming); "Dewdney, we're making you the third catcher." Having seen "Major League", I played along; "Yeah, but you only carry two catc...oh, SH*#." "Yeah....but hey, look, I got a way you can stay in baseball - AND earn some money!" "YEAH? I'm in. Er...how?" "You can be an ump! Great, eh?" *shocked silence* I kinda thought he was gonna "Jake Taylor" me and make me a coach. Wow...talk about culture shock. Anyways, there I was, less than a week later, wearing my old catching gear under HUGE pants (from the local Sally Ann), a light-blue security-guard uniform top (that I'd ripped the epaulets and patches off and had a number crested on the sleeve - #54, "five-four" as in the hockey penalty "five for fighting" since I figured I would be) ...and was I right on the number. Third inning, forget the count, but I ring up former teammate Ted Giansis on a close pitch, and the yap begins. "...horseSH*# hitter, too, and now we know why..." So Ted's gone. "NOW YOU KNOW WHY WE CUT YOUR ASS," from the dugout. This is where my Irish disposition swerved from amicable to a***hole in an instant. Had NEVER happened before, but here we go; "THAT'S IT! YOU'RE F***KIN' GONE!!!" I suddenly realized, as he was trying to get out of the extremely small dugout, that "Wow, you just threw out your old coach and present teacher. Not bright." The argument was, apparently, freakin' legendary; I know it lasted a solid two or three minutes, and resulted in me running MANY laps in gym class over the next month or so. The best part? A couple of days later, I get called into the office (a fairly routine occurrance for me). There's Coach Greene, sitting there looking very nervous, alongside one of the OTHER team's parents. The VP actually asked me for my version of events, and was pondering suspending Greene because the parent knew I went to the same school where Greenie was a teacher, and had complained that he was behaving in a threatening manner to one of his students. I figured I could earn some brownie points here, and quickly pointed out that what's normal on a baseball field would shock a lot of "outsiders", and that I considered the incident a) just part of the game, an educational experience (believe it!) and c) closed, and the VP decided to settle for a verbal warning. Funny, I never heard a "thank you" from Coach Greene... Anyways, it was entertaining in retrospect, and I can't WAIT to see him at the upcoming reunion - this oughta be good.

You know what the best part was? Wakamatsu's face. He just grabbed Ichiro and went back to the dugout - "yeah, you can't do that, man..." I wish OUR managers/coaches would take a page from that - you DO NOT always have to defend your guy.

Us Canadians won't get to our first buhbye until at LEAST April. Damn, it's cold without baseball.

I had the same thing happen in a HS game this year, and you expect that out of high-schoolers - not out of MLBers, even as fiery as Victorino is (he's one of my favourites, and I'm not even a Phillies fan) However, ejecting a CF IS a little bit of a stretch; I don't know about you guys, but I'm generally not aware of what the CF is doing, and am man enough (not questioning ANYONE ELSE's manhood AT ALL - just asserting my own) to ignore it until he comes up to bat. "My" kid did the same thing, except he added "WHAT THE F***?!?" at the top of his lungs. I cocked my head around the batter, letting him know, "I'm watching you, pardner". Nothing further until he came up to bat, (at which point I was busy reminding myself, "NO F.U. CALLS") He got a borderline pitch (it's a dream if he gets it in the same location as he whined about), so I LOUDLY called the strike, then let him know, while facing forward, "Both pitches get the same call, son. Jump around in center field again and you'll be doing it from the clubhouse." The word got around to the league - one of the senior players told me he'd heard all about it - so I think that's a much better way to handle it. Again, though, I've been p*ssed off, tired, hot and cranky and fired someone outta the field that might not have deserved it before. I AM Irish, after all. ...so I really can't blame Eddie Rap for that, wasn't there anyways, and shouldn't sit in judgement of another ump. Just my .02 (Canadian, at that...)

I think that the AC was blustering after seeing your hand descend towards your holster. He read you "five-by-five", and the fact that he didn't push his luck any further makes you the sheriff of that small town (which is, apparently, missing it's idiot...)

Gone, so gone. That's an instinct. However, I've vapor-locked on that before (haven't we all?)