s soon as Santa had left my house, two things happened that probably occur in many of your homes; hell, at least one of them does.

The first thing I do is get the chips, dip, and beer ready for the World Junior Hockey Championships and the NCAA Bowl season. That is the easy thing. The other is the annual rite of making my New Year's resolutions.

Like Tee, I need to lose a few pounds. Unlike Tee, it is only a few! (grin) Like every official reading this, I need to make changes in my game to be a better umpire. For me, I am concentrating on only one thing, and it has nothing to do with rules, positioning, or game management.

I am going to run a marathon. OK, maybe only a half-marathon.

Slow, fat umpires

I have been amazed that for years baseball umpires were the only officials who, on average, are in much worse condition than the players. We see guys with hangovers (that is the gut hanging over the belt) working games all the time.

Continued...