t this point, I realized my lack of work was affecting my umpiring. Given the fact that I was halfway through a national tournament, that was not something I needed to know. Things just weren’t "natural." As the tournament entered its final day of round robin play, I was determined to be better. I would be working two bases again, so hopefully that would be a chance to turn things around. Our crew had two great games scheduled, with the top three teams in the tournament battling for the first spot.

This day was sooooo long, it will take two articles to talk about. Today, we will look at all of the fun I had in the first game. Next week, we’ll look at the night game and examine how that game and the rest of my performance shaped up in the eyes of the supervisors.

By the way, the only thing you'll learn from today's article is how lucky you were to be somewhere other than on the same field with me!