Charity tournament

[Umpire in Chief]

Guy's I've said a number of times that while I don't umpire exclusively for the money, I also don't do free games.

Well here is the exception. There is a charity baseball tournament held every year about 50 miles from where I live. Every year I say I'm going to volunter, but there has always been an excuse not to. Well this year I registered. The UIC of the tournament is a freind and a senior umpire I consider my mentor. My rookie season we did about 20 games together including my 3rd & fourth games ever (I'll post that story later today). Games will be played between 8/4 & 8/16.

Money earned in the tournament benefits the MD Association. This is a great event even with all volunteer umpires, we still work 3 man crews for all games. The umpires love it they kids (juniors) love it and it is a relaxed tournament.

Guys get out there and find ways to incorporate your love of umpiring with a charity and if you already do let us know how.

[LMSANS]

I was asked to do the plate for the HS senior all-star game. Of course I said yes. Then I was told that there would be no fee. OK Turns out it was a 4-man crew, 2 very senior guys and 2 up and comers (like me). The teams are coached by 3 varsity coaches each and it is sponsored by the coaches association and all monies collected goes to a local children's charity. It became the best of all worlds.

While I would never "volunteer" to umpire at any level, I would be happy to do any charity game that comes my way.

[Umpire in Chief]

Well my games of the charity tournament were Tuesday and it was a great time for all.

This was an interesting tournament to support MD. They raise money through the entire game in a number of ways I found interesting.

• Have fans sponsor strike outs. For each strike out by their team they donate $. I saw this from $1-$5. We were told this as umpires and reminded there's no money for walks.
  
  
• We as umpires fine players coaches fans for little things. Wearing jewelry, untucked shirt ...
  
  
• The fans will donate money for other various items. A group of fans donated $30 to have their coaches run the bases backwards.
  
  
• They were doing 50/50 raffles each time the pot got bigger. Many times the winner just donated the money back.
  
  
• They had great raffle prizes as well. All sorts of collectibles. I hope I win the Brooks Robinson Autographed ball. I think I may be one of the last O's fans around.
  
  
• Teams not only paid the entry fee but gave money at the beginning of each game.
  
  
• I thought that it was interesting that runs would not become official until somebody sponsored the run. People were paying between $1 - $10 to sponsor their runs.
  
  
• When there were great plays the PA guy would solicit sponsorships for those great plays.
  
  
• I had a banger of a pick off play at first the coach told me I got the call right but he'd put $20 in for me to change it. I couldn't bring myself to do it, but thought about fining him the $20 for trying to bribe me.
  
  
• When at the plate I fined the catcher $1 for not catching a ball and having it hit me.
  
  
• Of course they had the obligitory t-shirts and other souvineers.
  
  

The games themselves were not that good. The first game I worked 1 base. The score on the board was 22-2, I think the winning team may have run out of money to sponsor the runs going on the board because it seemed like much more. The teams were supposed to be 13-15 y/o playing on 90' bases. One team seemed much younger and completely unable to play on a big field. The game took 2:45 to get to the bottom of the 5th. OUCH. But this did include announcing line ups, presenting money, singing the National Anthem, intrducing the special guest, who was striken with MD, an envocation, and the whole 9 yards. The organizers did an absolutely incredible job even better than some "Real" tournaments where there is "more at stake."??? The tornament was held in Hampton, VA and our association doesn't have any contracts up there. (Though we should, I could write volumes on the association which does the games up there, but they are nice guys who pretty much try hard.)

This was my first time doing 3 man in about 2 years, so my first game I was out of position a lot. I must admit while I did a 3 man clinic earlier in the year, I didn't study and prepare for these games the way I should have. It started coming back to me towards the end of that game, but for the first time in a long time I found myself thinking on the field. 2 man has become so instinctual there is no thinking required, but that's a great thing about 3 man as an experienced umpire I've learned how to slow the game down in my head. I could pick up on my partners and figure everything out. The 3rd base umpire, a rookie, did an excellent job certainly better than I. And the UIC for our crew worked the first plate was a college umpire I'd worked with last saturday.

For the second game I was behind the plate. I was much more comfortable here, and was back on track with my rotations and things became instinctual again. One of the teams had my former boss's kid on it and I chatted with him before the game. His team was only put together the week before they only had 1 practice and only 6 kids showed up. So he was giving me news I didn't necessarily want to hear. Especially being that their opponent was a JV/Jr. Legion team I'd had 5-6 times earlier between the 2 seasons and were pretty good.

Well the fans of the team, one in particular, which doesn't use our association didn't care for my strike zone because I was getting the low and away strike at the corner. One time the catcher for that team was at bat and I call the low away strike for strike 1 and the guy starts up and the batter, their catcher, said to him, "Come on that was a strike, we've just never had an umpire who calls those before. He's calling them for us too." I smiled and thanked the catcher. Unfortunately I had to strike him out looking on a curve a few pitches later. When he came back to catch he told me that that guys son has been on all of his teams since he was 6 and that he is just a jerk. He's had the cops called on him a few times too, but the kid is cool.

I had a great play at the plate which I was able to give the big exciting out on to end an inning.

Well David defeated Goliath. This pick up team beat the regular team 12-0. It took another 2:30 for that game, but it wasn't due to a lack of game management.

All three of us had a really good time. I will be doing this again next year. Our UIC had been doing this tournament either with his son as a player or umpiring for 30 years, and I can see why.

[Umpire in Chief]

Here are a few pics from the tourney. You've never seen an ejection with so many smiles. It earned a few bucks (and I believe was requested for $$$ or there were some shenanigans going on b/t innings). I'm the fat BU.

[BellevueUmp]

UIC-

I found the different ways to raise money at the tourney pretty interesting. One of the associations here in the Omaha area has arranged for services to be donated at a charity tournament in honor of a local boy who was killed in a car accident some years back. Last time I worked the tournament, they were selling souvenir t-shirts as one of the fundraisers, with tournament umpires being given a t-shirt as a gesture of thanks. When I finished my games, I was informed that they didn't have any t-shirts left in my size. I told them that I'd only have turned it back so they could sell it anyway. I found out later that all the umpires did that, too (nice coincidence). I'm going to email the other fundraising ideas to the guy who is typically UIC for the tournament, maybe that will help them raise more money in future events.

Where in Hampton VA did they have the tournament? I started umpiring with a local LL when I was stationed there. Best of luck with any future work you do with these folks.

pkv

[Umpire in Chief]

I was at Tremble Field (American Legion post 31) directly across from Darling Stadium on Victoria Blvd. I believe they were running 4 or so different locations as they had 4 age groups. I am completely unfamiliar with the pennisula area as I live 40+ miles away in NC and honestly try to avoid crossing any of the tunnels like the plague because of the traffic.

[blindumpire99]

Well my games of the charity tournament were Tuesday and it was a great time for all.

This was an interesting tournament to support MD. They raise money through the entire game in a number of ways I found interesting.

What a great idea...I think the FD and the PD play softball once a year for MDA and then again for Special Olympics....Key word ONCE..

Edited September 1, 2008 by blindumpire99

[Umpire in Chief]

Heres an article written about the tournament.

http://gamedaymagazine.com/2008/08/fighting_muscle_dystrophy_with.php