Not All Heroes Wear Capes (Some Wear Umpire Gear)

Dayton, OH-

It is Winter. What better time to reflect on baseball? Not all heroes wear capes, some do wear umpire gear though. At TBR tournaments, we do what we can to attempt to get games in through inclement weather. Behind the scenes, it can be hectic when a weather event hits. We scratch and claw to get games in and the competitive spirit in me wants to prove mother nature, and sometimes coaches/parents wrong.  Unfortunately, mother nature sometimes wins, but we NEVER go down without a fight. I am fortunate that some of my partners (Shoutout to Kyle, Shawn, Billy, and Logan from Action Sports Center) have a similar viewpoint as me. Umps have things to do and places to go and when a rain delay hits some are not always able to stay.

One game Left...
We had one game that needed to be played in order to finish moving all teams to bracket play. If the game didn't get played the other two contingencies were: 1. to revert back and erase games played OR 2. restart the ONE pool play game left on the next day. Taking a game played away is not good, especially if a team "upset" another team and/or is vying for gold bracket status. The second option of moving the ONE final pool play game to the next day, then starting the bracket right after, leaves teams in limbo overnight. This is also less than ideal for teams and the tournament as a whole. Neither are good positions to be in.  The only other option is to figure out how to play the game. 

The Problem...
We didn't have a place to play or have ANY extra umpires willing to stay. Many were already umping other games. The field agreed to let us play one more game and both teams also agreed to play. Now we needed to find an ump. The ump assigner and myself were striking out left and right.  It occurred to me that I know an experienced ump playing in the 16u division playing in game right now in my tournament. I called his mom and he was more than willing to come down and ump a game, right after his game was finished.  He was even prepared to be the home plate ump if needed. In the end, another home plate ump stepped up and the young man ended up umping the bases and did a tremendous job. We also finished the hectic day with two umps per game, every game!  More importantly we were able to advance ALL teams to their respective brackets. 

We oftentimes feel battered, bruised, and mentally exhausted after tournaments, especially ones filled with weather events. We always do what is best for the MOST teams and also balance it with the teams that have performed well up to that point. Our umps, ump assigner, and park personnel are such hard workers and that is another story altogether. In this particular case I would like to thank Noah D., for saving this age group.