Hi From Iowa!

[ShinySideUp]

The only state in our great nation where high school baseball is still a SUMMER sport!

That's right, our sate tourney isn't till JULY!

Not that it matters ...

Howdy, y'all! I started umpiring because the umps working my son's games didn't know much about the rules, and I actually fell for the ump's challenge, "If you think you can do better, come on out and try it!"

That was 8 years, nine clinics, one camp, and probably 250 games ago. I'd do more games, but one son is still playing, and I help coach his team. That, and I don't want to upset my wife, since her job pays the bills.

I've been NFHS certified for three years now, and this year I have my first scheduled HS games (I've done "on-call" duty for the local association for two years). Mostly, I do USSSA season and tournament games from 8U (with my 13 year old son) through 16U.

I've learned more from umpire.org, eteamz, and the AmateurUmpire web site than I can say, and since traffic on the other two foums have dropped off, I'm looking for lively discussions.

Mostly, I lurk.

[Umpire in Chief]

Welcome to the site. Hopefully we can break you of your lurking habits .

I heard that before that Iowa still had baseball in the summer. I think thats great because there are other sports that compete w/ baseball. Personally I was always a better soccer player than baseball. But I continued to try out for baseball and kept getting cut, then being unable to try out for soccer. This way I could have done Football in the fall, wrestling, in the winter, soccer in the spring and maybe tries baseball in the summer.

Welcome again we're glad to have you here.

[mstaylor]

It's good to lurk to add to your knowledge but it's also good to ask questions. Many times I have seen guuys that think they understand until they try to put it into words and find out there is some piece missing. Welcome to the board.