f you’re not blessed with clairvoyance, or the dubious "gift" of premonition, trying to forecast the future can be a pretty difficult undertaking. All the same, I’ve never shrugged at "doing the hard yards," as they say. Instead, I have always found myself in complete agreement with Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) in "A League of Their Own," when he was pleading with Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) about how hard it is to be deeply committed to professional baseball....

Says Tom: "It’s supposed to be hard! If it was easy everyone would be doing it. It’s the ‘hard’ that makes it great!"

That’s pretty much the way I feel about my umpiring too, even though it will never be in a major league ballpark in the very heartland of the game. I face similar personal pressures. I wage war with similar inner demons. I deal with similar desires to leave my mark deeply and indelibly engraved into the game I love, even if only in my own insignificant corner of the world down under.

Continued...