Presidents Message

Fellow Officials,

I’ve seen many excellent Memorial Day messages over the years; there’s the one about the kid crying at a funeral, and the one about a young wife lying by a cemetery plot, most with some version of the expression “in case you thought Memorial Day was about barbecue.”

Well, my friends, I’m confident that you know the meaning of Memorial Day, so I’ll tell you about my Uncle Jigs. Yes, you heard that right. Uncle Jigs (I also had an Uncle Cheesy – my mom’s family had great nicknames). Uncle Jigs was my mother’s oldest brother; he died shortly after I was born, so I never knew him except through family stories. Like many others of his generation, Uncle Jigs went to Europe to fight Hitler.

One day in Belgium, he was shot by a sniper and very severely wounded. He made it back home, but his life, as you can probably guess, was never quite the same. Battling lifelong health issues, he taught high school in Pennsylvania and coached the school’s baseball team. I’m told he was a bit of a cut-up and prankster; we all heard about his practical jokes when we were kids. And yes, he would occasionally umpire some of the local industrial league games. By the way, Uncle Jigs would want you to enjoy some good barbecue today.

We have some officials that I would like to take a few moments to acknowledge. First and foremost, I would like to give a shout-out to all our umpires who are doing playoff games for the first time this year! Congratulations and welcome to the most exciting time of the year.

I wanted to share with you my experience of my first playoff game. It was a Liberty District quarter final between Lee High School (now Lewis) and Park View High School. I had the dish in a constant rain with an umpire named Jeff King. Jeff doesn’t umpire anymore, but was one of the veterans when I started. Yes, it was a two-man game and fairly well played, with Lee winning 7-3. Wow, have things changed! Enjoy these games! Have fun and remember, this is the best time of year.

Next, let’s call out some folks who have been there a bit and are doing their first college playoff games this year. You are the future leaders of our association! Congratulations, you have earned this. The higher you get, the more confident you get, and the slower the game gets, the more in control you are. Remember you have a duty and a responsibility to help those umpires who aren’t quite as far yet on their journey. They are looking to you for support and guidance. I know some of these umpires, and I can assure you that our future is in great hands.

• Dustin Fields, Dave Stewart, Dave Gabor, Bill Worthington, and Tom Russo were selected to do the NCAA DIII regionals.
• Jason Lambert, Andy Simons, and Drew Hoagland were selected to do the NCAA DIII super regionals.
• Greg Kewitt was selected to do the DIII World Series.

You should see the remaining Blue Crew News team hard at work in the next issue, which comes out on June 9th. Until then, in umpire legend Al Straub’s words, call more strikes!

Dave