Day Before the Tourney

Just arrived in sunny southern california for the Western regional Junior Little League tournament. There is a buzz at the hotel as teams from around the west coast come in and get settled. I asked the clerk what it was like to have 200 14 year olds running around - and he said with a smile that it was his week off.

This is the culmination of years of work for 8 select umpires. We represent districts from Southern California, Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Together we have over 100 years of LL umpire experience, including 2 who have umpired in the Major LL Regional in San Bernadino.

My path to this tourney started in Willow Glen in 1989 when my son was 6 years old. When he was 10, I was asked to umpire, and I never looked back. I have umpired many games over the years, and always hoped that some day I would be able to do a regional tournament.

Then in December, 2008, I received a notice from Western Region LL that I had been selected to represent District 12 at the Junior Regional Tournament. You can ask my wife, Marilyn - I almost drove off the road when she told me there was a letter from Western Region. And now, 8 months later, and many, many more games later, here I am in Aliso Viejo, a day away from the tournament.

Today we had a pre-meeting with the umpire in chief for District 55 where the 8 umpires met for the first time. Guess what - we're just 8 umpires in for a week's worth of baseball - each of us will do 3 games a day for the next 5 days.

We got our official uniforms - Western Region LL shirts and hats - and found out our schedule. We're just hoping the weather doesn't get any hotter than it is now - it was 90 on the field at 5:00.

We have another meeting in 30 minutes where we will meet and be introduced to the 12 teams in the tournament. Can't wait - 200 14 year olds, their coaches, managers and parents - should be a great 'meeting'.