Hey Man, Nice Hat

It's been a while since I last posted, but this story is a pretty good one, brought back to mind by a camera we finally got developed and the fact that hockey season is starting anew.

To start this story, you need to know that I am a silly guy. I'll do silly things for attention, but not always outright attention, more of the, "look at that guy" kind of attention. So when my then girlfriend (for now to be referred to solely as "wife") saw the huge stovepipe St. Patrick's Day hats at Wal-Mart, well, I just had to get me one to wear for the upcoming Atlantic Junior Hockey League playoffs in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She got one too.

A couple weeks before the March 17 game at Verizon Center, I had been contacted by a group to announce their post-game hockey contest on the ice at the home of the Washington Capitals. I had debated this because I knew we'd have to be up early the next morning to catch a flight to Boston. I decided to do it because it would give me a chance to wear the hat in public to a Caps game but also gives me another game to announce. As most who know me will attest, I'm abused by the announcing bug. Have game, will announce!

I get to Verizon Center ahead of my wife because, well she came in from another place and I had a pre-game hockey match-up with some kids to announce. I wish I could remember the teams, one day I'll find the scorebook from this weekend and put them in here! I did the kids game, put my announcing stuff in a locked room then waited for the gates to open. Wearing my 3-foot tall hat, I walked around the concourse then down to the ice level for warm-ups. Several people pointed and smiled, but the first person to say anything was a 5 year old little girl who tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I like your hat". She was cute!

After warm-ups, and with the wife coming in on Metro, I walked back up to the concourse where I was stopped by Rachel. Rachel, who works on the Caps game operations team, asked me if I'd be interested in participating in a contest. Gee, the hat made it easy to pull me out of a line-up and this is the ultimate, "look at that guy" kind of thing to do so I said, "sure". I wasn't quite paying attention to what the contest was, I was told to wait in my seat and they'd get me at the end of the second period. Our seats were an easy walkway from where the contest was to be held.

I get over to the contest and find out, it's "Fan Announcer of the Game". Great, this was tailored to me, wasn't it! Now, keep in mind that no less than a dozen people working for the Caps knew who I was and what I do, Rachel didn't. The official scorer for the Caps, the guy running the Caps penalty box, the P. A. announcer for the Caps, my contact for the youth games and most of the people in game ops knew what I do for a living.

So I get up there and we're about 2 minutes away from starting when Rachel tells me to go first. I hear over her headset, "Jarrod goes second. HE...GOES...SECOND" So I go second.

First, they show us a scene from a game with some keywords on the board to help us out along with the call by Joe Beninatti. My opponent, a fellow from Texas, steps up and he begins to stammer and stutter his way through it, receiving a mild round of applause and a couple of boos.

Then, it's my turn.

"Kerry Fraser and [can't remember the other ref's name] are the referees tonight and here we go as the Caps win the faceoff back to the blue line, they'll start it up along the right-wing boards to Clymer who skates across the blueline, winds up and fires it on Esche. It squeaks through and SCORE!" The place erupted. Literally erupted like the Caps had actually just scored.

The other fellow was amazed, the camera guy and Rachel were "wow" and the crowd that was in the seats watching the promo were stunned.

I won a Ben Clymer autographed puck and considered giving it to the fellow from Texas but wound up keeping it where it is prominently displayed in my sports room. After the promotion however, I had a lot of people recognize the hat and say, "wow, you did a great job!" and "wow, you sound like a pro". All I could say was, "thanks!" Except to the people who I was announcing for after the game. Nobody recognized me until after when I put the hat on!

Anyway, the game ends and the wife heads home because she is going to pack for us to head up to Boston the next morning. To most people, this would be the end of the story, not the middle of one. I mean, how many people get to hear themselves on the sound system at Verizon Center before, during and after a Caps game...I mean get to participate in a contest?

I'm down announcing the game and knowing that it's going to snow. In fact, it already had as the wife had texted me when she got back to her car. We were flying JetBlue and this was a month after they had all those problems on Valentine's Day with people stuck in planes away from the gates for over five hours.

Here is where the decision played big time.

After the game, I get into my car and head home. Had I decided not to do that game, we would've been sleeping at the time I arrived home, 1:30 a.m. Throughout the evening, Spring had checked JetBlue's web site to make sure the flight was still on. Right before she signed off at 1:30 a.m., she checked one more time and the flight was cancelled. I called JetBlue to confirm and within 20 minutes, we were on our way to Boston...in her new car...in a snowstorm...and not quite 100% sure where to go.

Both of us had been awake around 6 a.m. Friday morning so this was going to be a teamwork happening. She slept through most of the first part of the trip as we headed up I-95 on some roads that were good, some not so much. It didn't get back until we got on the New Jersey Turnpike around 3 a.m. It was almost like they didn't touch it. Finally, I needed a break with my adrenaline already on low from the Caps game. She took over and as we hit Newark, the roads got bad. I could feel the car slipping a sliding but she stayed on the road well. By divulging how fast we were going (under the posted speed limits), we could still get a ticket, thankfully nobody was on the road with us, not even plows.

We got up to the other end of the Turnpike and I forget which way to go so I decided to keep her on I-95. We wound up going over the George Washington Bridge (only about a 1 minute wait there was!) and through the upper part of New York City into Connecticut. She drove from about Trenton up to about 20 miles into Connecticut then I took over again. You could tell the sun was starting to come up around five in the morning.

With the game starting at 10 a.m. and we need to be there by 9 a.m., it's still a crunch to get there. I took over and we had clear sailing up until Hartford. I'd decided to cut through Hartford on I-84 up to Worcester, it's the straightest line between Bridgeport and Boston.

We're doing fine, then the weather gets worse about 20 miles south of Hartford when it was hard to see the road. The trucks would come out and plow some parts, making it easy to drive on, then the road would disappear all of a sudden and you're sliding around. We make it through Hartford in two of the most harrowing hours I've ever spent driving a car. I'm so glad I had that experience driving an ice resurfacer.

We hit the Massachusetts border and the roads become wet, that's it. Not slippery, but just wet. Mass knows how to care for their roads. So 65-75 mph we went but doing it safely. We get to the exit near Cambridge (at least the directions said to take that exit) and we got lost. With my cell about to die and Glenn Hefferan calling to see where I am, he came out to meet us and got us on the right track back to the arena.

Both of us were still in pajamas (we wanted to be comfortable) so off to the restrooms to chang. Personally, I went and got set-up first and then went to change. After putting the time on the scoreboard to count down to warm-ups, the Zamboni takes the ice to go over it again. They'd misunderstood my timing to be that of the NCAA in that the Zamboni takes the ice at 20:00 on the scoreboard or something like that. Them doing the ice one more time, gave me enough time to write in the team rosters, get the starting line-ups and have everything ready for the game.

Spring worked the ticket table that had all the info on the games so she made a little bit by being there.

The Washington Jr. Nationals were playing the second game of the day at Harvard so I had something to look forward to, keeping me going through the first game. As I head up to check on Spring between games, I run into some Jr. Nats parents, one of which walks up to me and says, "Where's the hat? I saw you last night at the Caps game? I thought they called in a ringer!" I got that a lot that day and the following week!

A Junior-A game can take the same length as an NHL game, maybe a little less without TV timeouts but it's still a lengthy process that's not easy to do. The games get over around 4 p.m. and we head to the hotel to check in. A nice hotel, right on the Charles River, Fenway park off to the east and Boston's glory right in front of us. It was a beautiful room (thanks Glenn!).

It's now 34 hours since we last had real sleep and we have one more game in the morning. I've already announced four games and appeared at a fifth. So what do we do? Go to Cheers! Yep, had to eat at Cheers and it was awesome! Boston, on St. Patrick's Day and Cheers. Actually, it's the Bull N Finch Pub and we wound up eating upstairs at what was Melville's in the TV show but we got to see Boston Common and a few other landmarks on the cab ride. It was a great meal and the Boston Creme pie was amazing. I had a green drink named after Woody from the show, but can't remember the name of it. It was good too! Hey, I'm not a restaurant critic, I'm an announcer.

After dinner, we get back to the hotel and both are asleep by 9 p.m. Dead to the world are we until about 6 a.m. when I woke up for no reason, then fell back to sleep for a couple more hours before having to get to the rink for the AJHL championship game.

After the game, we hopped in the car and visited an aunt in Ludlow, Mass which was kind of on the way. It was a detour around 84 but we got back down to where we needed to go and I had some help from people to get us to the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Anyway, we take the detour and I pull into her house. I hadn't been there in over 10 years, yet I remembered where it was. I knocked on the door, no answer, then called her to see where she was. She asked me, "Where are you?" I told her, "In your driveway!"

She got there and we followed her out for a steak dinner then drove home after that. I almost stopped off in New Jersey to introduce her to some friends of mine that live there that she wound up meeting a year or so later. It was about 6 p.m. as we passed through the Oranges in New Jersey, but we had to be at work on Monday.

A wrong turn delayed us from getting home before 1 a.m., but we were asleep by 2 a.m. on an uneventful ride home.

It's amazing how so much happened in one day. Two good, solid stories on their own, brought together because I like to announce!

Oh Crap, Who Am I Going To Root For?

The title of this blog says it all because on September 26, I'm going to be put into that situation when the Fairfax Rebels come to Centreville to take on the Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. in a football match-up.

Not only are Centreville and Fairfax in the same district, sharing the same District opponents, they also share something off the field...me!

Yep, I'm the announcer for Fairfax football (made official last week) and the music/video board/game operations person for Centreville. This will be the fourth year I've been on Centreville's board which is now five years old. It's mine during the fall and I design everything that goes on it. Other schools try to copy what we do, but we always seem to stay ahead of them.

For Fairfax, I'll be announcing three games that don't conflict with Centreville's four-game home schedule. I'll also be responsible for providing musical bits during the games to entertain fans. I just wonder how the Fairfax fans and players are going to receive the "welcome" they get at Centreville on September 26. It'll be one of those, "wow, they do the same stuff our guy does!". The only difference is I won't be announcing that game. Centreville currently has an announcer who several have asked for me to replace. It's a tough call because he also does basketball, something I can't commit to right now (though I'd like to, I just can't at the level they want me to commit).

So this year, my high school options will be as follows...
Fall Sports
Centreville for volleyball and football
Madison for volleyball
Fairfax for football

Winter Sports
Gonzaga hockey
DeMatha hockey & possibly basketball (the biggest of the gigs in the area)
West Springfield hockey
Fairfax for some basketball
Centreville gymnastics

Spring Sports
DeMatha baseball
Centreville baseball & softball (I have someone that wants softball and he's good, so I'll have him do it)

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm also announcing George Washington volleyball and American University field hockey in the fall. There might be some other events such as soccer and volleyball at AU that I'd be covering as well. It's going to be a slow fall season!

How Hard Is It To Get A Name Right?

Why can't people who are getting paid a lot of money while broadcasting an event world-wide get something as simple as the players' names correct?

I ask this after sitting in on a broadcast where the lead play-by-play man screwed up several names and after watching Team USA softball down Venezuela 11-0 in their first game at the Olympics.

Yes Joe Castellano, I'm talking about you. You messed up EVERY name on Venezuela my friend. You are the host of MLB Live Late Edition on XM Radio, you have been around baseball most of your life and you toiled in the minors for a VERY long time. You have also called the College World Series, three Triple-A All-Star Games, the Junior League World Series on ESPN and a host of other sports. You should be better prepared going into a game than you were in this debut.

You butchered the names of every player on Venezuela and how do I know? Because I asked each one how to say their name when they played against the Washington Glory the last two seasons. The best name on the team, at least in my opinion, is Denissee Fuenmayor. You pronounced it DUH-neece fwen-MAY-or. It's DEN-ee-say fwen-may-YORE. Yusmary Perez is yoose-MAH-rhee, not YOUS-mary. Zuleyma Cirimeli, ha ha ha. Wow, you butchered this one too!!!

Anyway, the reason I'm singling out Joe here is because it leads me into other broadcasters I've heard lately that don't do any prep and it shows.

Bernie Guenther does some sports on Fox Sports Net, nice voice and all, but he really should ask people how to say their names. When you're doing a broadcast of an NPF game, there are going to be people watching that know the players. So when you call Veronica Wootson and say it "WUT-sun" instead of "WOOT-son", it sounds bad. Especially after the PA announcer just got it right. You referred to LaDonia Hughes as "luh-DOAN-yuh". I can personally tell you, it's "luh-DON-yuh". There is another broadcaster in the NPF that gets these names wrong too.

I can understand someone getting a roster late that has some strange names, but I made it a concerted effort to seek out the translater to get the names right. I did it with China, Chinese Taipei and Venezuela. I do it before every game with every coach (unless I already know the players playing).

Joe Castellano, I'm greatly disappointed. NBC, how much lower can you get?

USA Softball

I was just reading something on one of the Olympics sites that said USA would have some problems with perennial powerhouse China. Which China team are they talking about? Are they talking about the China team that went 1-11 or 1-15 against the NPF last year including four drubbings by the league champion? Seriously?

I'd say Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) would have a better shot against the US than China. Though the Venezuelan team has some spunk and will try to give the US a run for their money in the first game, I really don't think that with three super-power pitchers and the offensive line-up put together by USA Softball, that there is anything to worry about. US will get their fourth gold and this one shouldn't even be close.

Well wait, Canada has some good talent in Caitlin Lever and Hayley Wickenshiser. Lever is the daughter of former NHLer Rod Lever and Hayley's brother Doug played in the NHL. Oh yeah, Hayley also represents Canada in women's hockey during the Winter Olympics. The Canadians are a scrappy bunch who can challenge the US, but there is just too much to the Americans...so long as they don't pull a men's hockey and choke but I doubt they will.

These women are playing more for pride than anything else. They're playing for the logo on their chest, the country they call home and all the little girls out there who want to be just like them one day...something some of these ladies never had.

Go USA softball, bring home the gold and hopefully we'll have a chance to see the gold medals of Monica Abbott and Kelly Kretschman next year at Glory games.

10 Years, 6 Cities, A Lot of Teams

When I look at my experience in pro sports over the last ten years, I look at different places I've lived, different teams I've worked for and different people I've met.

For three years from 1998-2000, I lived in St. Petersburg, Florida while working for the St. Petersburg Devil Rays. During that time, I also worked for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, announced and/or played music for the Tampa Yankees, Charlotte Rangers, Orlando Rays (only one of those teams is still around), University of Tampa (baseball, basketball, volleyball and soccer), the NCAA, NJCAA, Conference USA and broadcast my first baseball games with the 2000 Florida State League all-star games and championship series. In 2000, I also provided play-by-play at our ballpark while also the PA announcer, the first time I ever really did it however not on the same basis as I do today. That year I made my Fox Sports debut when Tony Saunders broke his arm for the second time while on a rehab assignment with St. Pete. It was a rough night.

During those three years I also had the opportunity to announce for a lot of players coming up through the minors, quite a few stand out, others flaked out but in the end I can look at Major League Baseball teams and probably say I've announced for two or three players on every team. Several who played on rehab assignments include Curt Schilling, Todd Hundley, Albie Lopez, Rolando Arrojo and Wilson Alvarez. Mike Rabelo and Johnny Raburn were in college and Lastings Milledge was in high school when I announced for them. Matt Diaz and Aubrey Huff were making their way through the Devil Rays system among many, many others. My first game in the Florida State League was Dunedin at Tampa. Pitching for Dunedin was Dave Steib in his attempted comeback for the Blue Jays. In 1999, I also got to announce for some of baseball's great's in a legends game in St. Pete. Growing up an Orioles fan and getting to announce Brooks Robinson as, "the greatest third baseman of all time" was amazing. I had ad-libbed that line and the reps from MLB were fine with that. There were numerous others such as Dave Winfield and I wish I could go back to find the autographed program I have from that game. Why? Because it was signed by Tug McGraw.

Meeting Tug was awesome. This was around the time that he and Tim were getting back together and sorting things out. The previous year Tim was playing in the same celebrity/legends game at Tropicana Field and got a base hit. I wanted to play "I Like It, I Love It" for the hit but was told not to by my boss with the Devil Rays. The following year, the year I met Tug, I had the opportunity to play it when he came in to pitch. As Tug was warming up, I was scrambling to find the song as he had a rep radio up to the pressbox, "Tug wants you to play some Tim, do you have any?" I did, played it and after a pitch, Tug stopped, looked up at the pressbox and gave me the thumbs up. I got to talk to Tug after the game and told him what an honor it was to have him do that for me. He signed my program and we talked for about five minutes. In 2008, I had the chance to see Tim in concert and nearly came to tears when he sang "Live Like You Were Dying", a song Tim wrote about his dad.

That same year, I got to announce for a David Cone celebrity softball game that David Wells also played in. Jon Lovitz, Tom Arnold, Scott Stapp from Creed and many other celebrities played in this game as well. Then there was a tribute game that several rappers were a part of including Eminem. Before I had ever really heard of the guy, I didn't like him as he treated me like a slave. Had I known his history, I wouldn't have said what I said to him, but it makes for a great story without the kids around.

Also in 1999, I got to announce my first championship game when Orlando won the Southern League championship series. It was great and the final pro game at Tinker Field which is still there, amazingly. The year before, I had announced a 19-inning game in Tampa against Charlotte in the FSL playoffs, but the Yankees lost at St. Lucie in the championship series. 1999 was a really good year for me announcing.

2000 wasn't as much fun as the team was being sold at the end of the year and running a lame-duck team isn't fun. Plus, my first GM, Tony, was no longer with the team. Tony would bring me with him in 2001 to Auburn, NY where I got to work in short season ball. A hard switch going from working games from February to November to the New York-Penn League and only having games from the middle of June to September. The high school games and college tournaments we had helped fill the void, as did getting to Syracuse to see a few games. At Syracuse, I got to add my fourth park pulling tarp (Frederick, St. Petersburg and Orlando were the other three). During my time in Auburn, I was the media and PR guy for the baseball team, the sports information director at the local community college and a sports writer for the newspaper. Yeah, talk about your conflicts of interest.

In 2002, it was off to California for the Modesto A's and the California League. I was brough out there by the GM who had hired me to announce some games back in Orlando. Unforunately, it was an assistant GM who was my downfall in Modesto as he had convinced the GM I wasn't doing my work. I needed to make 100 sales calls per week during the offseason, which should lead to 10 appointments, which should lead to 1 or 2 sales. My problem, I was making 75 calls because I had 20-25 appointments, and making 4-5 sales out of those. A lot of those sales were turned back after I left. We also set an attendance mark in Modesto that stood for 10 years and was barely broken even though the A's/Nuts tried to stack the schedule in their favor several times.

The largest scoreboard in the minors is in Zebulon, NC, home of the Carolina Mudcats, where I went to work in 2003. They brought me in as back-up PA announcer and in-game host. I gained popularity very quickly, but the team just wanted me in for one season and that was it. We won the championship that season with Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis leading the team to a first-half championship, won the second half and then went on to win the league with an amazing team.

It was after the '03 season that I got an e-mail from Eric Hardman, the head coach of West Springfield hockey whose e-mail literally changed my life professionally and personally. I had several high school hockey teams in Virginia asking me to announce for them like I had in the 02-03 season (when back home between jobs). I had thought about moving back up to DC, however Eric's was the one that gave me the push to do it. When looking at the financials and the tournament I was to announce that year, I found that I could just barely make a profit if I limited myself, but Eric's was enough to make it worthwhile to find a place to rent and move "back home" though my parents had moved to North Carolina.

I decided to move up to Prince William County, wound up staying with a family of a Hylton high school player, got a job working at the ice rink driving the Olympia ice resurfacer and made enough to stay up there and put some money away. I knew the announcing job with the Potomac Cannons was available as my dad knew the announcer from the year before was leaving. My dad had run the video/message board for the Cannons in '03. I knew this information and in late February, made the call to the GM of the Cannons to inquire about the job. I started out at $45/game and after opening night, was brought up to $70/game using my own equipment. I was also in charge of making sure the video board was ready and updated during the games.

In 2004, I met a girl online and wound up moving to Portland, Oregon the following season and did the music for the Portland Beavers and Timbers. I got to announce a pair of games for the Beavers, against Colorado Springs and Las Vegas. The Colorado Springs game made that the 30th Major League affiliate I had announced for. I also announced one Timbers game, against the Richmond Kickers who were a client of mine.

I came back in 2006 and that year sucked personally, but met my future wife Spring who I love and am so happy to have met. I also started my relationship with George Washington Univeristy and American University. I lasted half a year with the Potomac Nationals and announced a game at RFK Stadium. I'm done with pro baseball and have been to two pro ballparks since leaving pro baseball. Bowie hosted the Washington Glory in 2008 and went to a high school championship game in Newark, New Jersey a few weeks later. I can't stand the thought of going to another professional baseball game, I just know way too much. But I'm enjoying my time with both AU and GW in addition to my lasting relationship with the Washington Capitals.

The Washington Glory came along in 2007 and they won the league championship and are poised again to go back to the playoffs in 2008. I've had a ton of fun with the Glory and have had a lot of great moments with them. I just hope that the next 10 years of the professional side for me goes as well as the first ten.

When people ask me if I've seen something in pro sports, there is a great likelyhood that I have in baseball and hockey but I've also seen some things in basketball and football. I've called three no hitters (one high school baseball and two high school softball) and a perfect game in 2008 alone, announced an NCAA D-I team make their first ever trip to the Dance and got to see Alex Ovechkin's first foray into the NHL playoffs. Yeah, a lot seen, but a lot more to come!

Four Hours, And That's The Best You Got Blue?

People know that not only am I a heckler of game officials, I am one in several sports. I've refereed basketball, flag football, floor hockey, baseball and ice hockey. I currently am registered with two associations in the DC area and have the insight to know when an umpire isn't doing such a great job. I've pointed out positioning errors to on-field/on-ice officials they didn't think anyone except a supervisor would see.

When it comes to me and umpires, there is a love-hate respect among a few of us. Tim Timmons comes to mind on the baseball side. He and I had quite a few run-ins when he was in the Carolina League. I've also seen him umpire in AA, the AAA World Series and in the Majors. He and I have a lot of respect for each other even though he and I didn't see eye-to-eye when he felt it necessary to give three players plus the manager of a WINNING team the heave-ho one day.

C. B. Bucknor is another that comes across. He's one known to get into arguements with anyone who dares. The only problem, he loses every argument with people he can't eject, so he gives them the finger. He did to me in AA and in AAA. The AAA one was quite funny as I pointed out that as the third base umpire you don't have many calls to make. When he blew his fourth consecutive call of the night (out of a possible four calls), he finally turned to me and told me to "Go to hell." Thanks C. B., you got your name in a blog 13 years later. Great fodder my friend.

I'll even mix it up while coaching. I've been ejected as both a player and a coach, though the funniest one I ever had didn't result in an ejection, but my only career head coaching win. I was demonstrating on the field about how my player could be standing completely in foul territory, have the ball hit off his chest and the ball be fair. So I stood where my third baseman was standing, held out my scorebook in front of me and dropped it...completely in foul territory. At that point, the umpires knew I meant business and the other team stepped it up but it might've been too late.

Nothing however, will compare to the confrontation I had with an umpire who wasn't even on the field nor umpiring the game in question, telling me that I had to get back to the pressbox. Thanks to this umpire, he gets into a blog not 13 years later like Mr. Bucknor, but a mere six days after it happened.

John Gretz, the Umpire in Chief for Washington Glory games in NPF usually sits in the stands while games are going on, no matter how bad his umpires are on the field. And some of them are some of the worst umpires I have ever seen, people who listen to the broadcasts know of whom I speak.

This particular night, a Saturday night with a lot of fans in the stands at Westfield High School, the game was moving slow although the umpires we had were the best we have available to us. The plate umpire, Anthony Tutt does a great job and has fun umpiring. You can't fault a guy who obviously has fun while umpiring. When he makes a mistake you can be assured that it probably won't be happening again.

Anyway, there was lightning off in the distance for quite some time and the game was nearing the three-hour mark which is long in NPF games that normally last two hours. It was a great back-and-forth game but for some reason the umpires decided to stop the game because of the lightning.

We have radar in the pressbox, the ability to see what's going on weather-wise. We also have a device that detects lightning.

Anthony stops the game, and has a conversation with his fellow umpires on the field and the coaches. I go down, not only as a member of the Washington Glory, but also Fairfax County Public Schools (the games are played at a public high school) and someone who does a lot for the NPF as a whole.

I head down to let him know what he has available to him and as I'm telling him, John Gretz gets in my face to tell me that I have no jurisdiction here--when in fact I do. Ironically here, Gretz has none whatsoever and with the stuff he was pulling in this situation, I could've thrown an umpire out of the game! Yep, he was a person in the stands that was interfering with a game official performing his duties.

This guy, an umpire who is not even on the field, just showed the exact reason why umpires and officials are attacked. He firmly believes he is right and is the only one who is right because he is an umpire. His on-field performance however, is abominal. It's unfortunate that this is the best we have for fastpitch softball which tells me that there are a lot of girls who are playing this sport who are getting subpar officiating and probably losing interest in the sport.

Umpires with chips on their shoulders are not needed in baseball/softball. Heck, watch an NBA game and the officials there act like the fans paid to see them. Major League Baseball umpires were like that until the mid-90's when a bunch were told their services were no longer needed because there were others just as qualified who would call the strike zone, not show up 100 or more pounds overweight and would not bait coaches or players into getting ejected. It's created a friendlier game and baseball is better for it on all levels.

The game in question took three hours and 59 minutes, ten innings and five pitchers to complete. There were seven lead changes and it was a long night. In addition to that, I was doinig play-by-play, PA and playing the music. Yeah, long night and it took an umpire to over-exert his authority to make it even longer.

New Posting!!!

I last posted over 2 1/2 years ago and a lot has changed since 2005, but a lot hasn't.

The Red Sox have won another World Series, we had the Patriots nearly go undefeated the same season the Dolphins only won one game, we've had the resurgence of the Washington Capitals and basketball, well that's basketball.

Anyway, since 2005, I've had the opportunity to work various places and finally swore off professional baseball. Why? Because I've had too much of it. I know too much to know that I want to go back and haven't. I've been in a professional baseball stadium twice, once on May 10, 2008 to see the Washington Glory play and the other about 21 days later when my wife and I went up to New Jersey to visit some friends (it was for a high school game).

I've been offered tickets to the first game at Nationals Park that I turned down. I've had people threaten to kidnap me and take me to a pro game. I've sat through exactly one pro baseball game on TV and that was the last all-star game at Yankee Stadium. I just know too much about the kind of people that work in front offices, the kind of ideals they have and the general attitudes that come out of them. It's not pretty, and it's not fun, except if you're Mike Veeck.

I've caught on with the Glory, and have announced every game they've played in the DC area. They are Fairfax County's only professional sports franchise (although not the first, that honor goes to both the Washington Stars who played their games at Fairfax High School and W. T. Woodson High School back in the late 80's/early 90's).

The Glory are a fun time, featuring the likes of current Team USA stars Monica Abbott and Kelly Kretschman. Abbott, you may remember, was in the 2007 Women's College World Series pitching for Tennessee against a junior, Taryne Mowatt and her University of Arizona squad. Mowatt won, and now, ironically enough, they're teammates. Sort of.

The Glory won the 2007 NPF championship with Abbott in the circle for the last month of the season. In that time, I got to announce her pro debut in which she struck out 18 over 10 innings over Cat Osterman and do play-by-play for her first professional no hitter in the first game of the playoffs over Rockford. Beacuse of commitments with Team USA, niether Abbott nor Kretschman are with the team this year, but will be next year.

Thus far in 2008, I've had the opportunity to announce a pair of no hitters in high school softball (Centreville over Yorktown in the Northern Region first round and the semi-final round of the VHSL state tournament but can't remember the teams off hand right now!) and my first perfect game at any level. Desiree Serrano did it for the Glory over the Venezuelan National Team earlier this season. 21 up, 21 down, and this isn't a team to take lightly, they're the best Venezuela has to offer and quite a few played high D-I college softball.

As I progress through publishing more blogs, I do promise to add more of my thoughts and experiences, more in the realm of various things that happen to me. Why? Because I can and almost feel a need to do so. Like the time I got into an arguement with an umpire while announcing. Or how the Glory aren't doing so hot at Westfield this year (attendance wise). Or why is Westfield High School the only high school in Fairfax County to not be in a residential area. Or about how people tell me I can't announce and do play-by-play at the same time. Or about how newspaper reporters follow what I do to cover events. Or about how I can announce several sports in one day. Or...well you get the point.