Plate experience at Jr League World Series

About 4:00 Tuesday afternoon, I put the ball in play for the game between the Czech Republic and Canada.  The moments leading up to that event are among the key memories I will take back with me from the World Series.  Each member of the umpire crew will have had 1 plate experience by the end of Wednesday's games.  In my case, I had 2 days to look forward to 'my' game.  

As the crew assembled prior to the game, I wanted to make sure that I was prepared, and that our team was ready to do the best we could for the players.  Over the past couple days, we have each done several games and we've worked with each other at different positions.  It was important to me that I do everything I could to have the umpires be the best yet.  So, we had a small meeting in the umpire room, where we covered some of the more nuanced situations that have come up - just to make sure we were all on the same page if something different popped up - because, after all it is Little League, and in Little League, there is always something new in every game.

As we gathered outside the gate to enter the field, I took a deep breath, looked around, and just soaked in the moment - being behind the plate at a world series game!  I shook off my nervous energy, wiped my misty eyes and walked onto the field.

My very closest friend, Terry, came in from Chicago to spend a couple days with me - here's a picture he took during the game.

The game itself was very exciting.  The lead went back and forth until the Czech Republic finally hung on for a 10-9 victory - with the winning run scored in the bottom of the 6th.  The game was moving along at a brisk pace until the 6th inning, when Canada scored 5 runs to take a 4 run lead, and then the Czechs came back with 5 of their own to regain their one run advantage.  That inning just seemed to take forever.

Early in the game, we had two Czech players get slightly injured, one by a thrown ball and one getting hit by a pitch.  They were both replaced by substitutes, which caused quite a bit of confusion when the coach wanted to send the starters back into the game (you need to understand Little League substitution rules to understand why that could not be allowed).  It took some time to unwind the mistake, and we then had to hold up the game for the scorekeeper to get back into his post on the 3rd floor - this may have been the first time that time was called for a scorekeeper :)

When the game ended, and the crew walked off the field, I felt good knowing that we had done our best.

The tournament continues with 4 games today (Wednesday).  My only assignment is at 2nd base on the last game of the day.  By some quirk of scheduling, my game assignments were front loaded - I was in 7 of the first 10 games, so today, I get a bit of a rest.