Southern Umpires Camp Day 3

[Umpire in Chief]

Okay I haven't been able to post as frequently as I wanted because the hotel's internet sucked hard. I'd get a burst of 5 minutes of good connectivity then nothing for hours. But that is not any problem of the camp's.

Saturday we started with some classroom work discussing mechanics and rules specifically base awards. This was a great refresher for me and got my mind really cranking.

After the classroom session we went out to a local HS field. We were broken into groups 1/2 of us did fungo drills with Paul Nuaert, 1/4 of us went into the bullpen with Tripp Gibson and the remaining 1/4 went with Ed Rapuano. I started with Paul in the field doing the fungo drills. Not only that, my partner and I were first out on the field. I was BU first and we did 5-6 plays where Paul Nuaert with Steve Manders in the field working with the BU set up situations and used a HS team to run the bases as he hit the fungo. I probably had 1/2 okay and the other half I butchered and I knew it right away. We all know what excuses are worth, besides there isn't too much excuse for being a bonehead. But it was still very eye opening and a great learning experience.

Just a few minutes later I had my turn on as the BU. Once again I did about 1/2 of my drills well. I covered the line really well once when there wasn't any fair/foul issue, I broke really late on a first to third. But once again it was a good learning experience. And I know better, but its better to be a bonehead here than when it really counts.

I then went to the bullpen to work first with Rapuano. Once again I did pretty well in the cage both with Rapuano and Tripp Gibson. They are primarily looking at your stance and your ability to track the ball, timing and mechanics.

We returned to the hotel to watch a video of Shag, Joe, & Jerry Crawford and some situations. It was pretty funny, it was also ironic timing that Ed Rapuano walked in just at the moment where he is ejecting Eddie Murray.

After the video we did the raffle. In last years raffle I won with 3 of the 6 tickets I bought including the grand prize of a scholarship to this camp. The prizes included a Ball signed by Doug Harvey, various other signed balls, and uniforms, a mask, some shin guards, and more. Well believe it or not I actually won the grand prize again. However, I declined the prize. I sort of have second thoughts about declining it, but will probably be back at a future date.

[Umpire in Chief]

One thing I forgot to mention is that while we were on the field that day Dan Iassogna stopped by to watch us for a while and gave us a little pep talk.