Baseball in Waco

Sometime during the first week of August each year, Little League baseball comes to Waco, TX. Waco is the headquarters of the Little League Southwest Region and hosts the Southwest Region Tournament at the baseball complex behind region headquarters.

I have just returned from spending a bit over a week in the record breaking heat in Waco. “Why?”, because my husband was invited to umpire at the Little League Southwest Region Tournament this year. I wanted to show my support of his accomplishment and help out when I could. The volunteers took good care of the players and umpires and even though the temperature was over 100 each day, none of them fell out from the heat. Fans were encouraged to stay hydrated as well and seemed to follow this advice. I was able to pitch in and help clean up the stands after each game.

The umpire assignments rotated them through the different positions during the tournament. My husband called the plate for the semi-final game between the Colorado state champions and the Texas East champions. (Texas is so big it has two “state” level tournaments, one for Texas East and one for Texas West.) The team from Texas East beat Colorado in an exciting and close game. For the finals between Texas East and Louisiana, my husband was assigned to rotate out with another umpire on the right field line. This is where he was at the bottom of the seventh inning and where some of the action occurred on the game winning play. (Little League tournament games are six innings. This game was in extra innings because the score was tied at the bottom of the sixth.) A clip of this play was uploaded to YouTube. The first minute of the clip shows the lead up to the last play, the final hit and my husband calling the ball fair. The hit resulted in a triple, but with an overthrow by Texas East at third, the batter scored the winning run. Louisiana now goes on to represent the Southwest Region at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA.

The fans really get into the excitement of the tournament. Fans of teams often have matching t-shirts, some had matching jewelry. I wore my baseball gathering pins several times and one fan wore an elaborate handmade hat to the semi-finals and finals. All in all, in spite of the heat, a good time was had by all.

Baseball Fever

Baseball fever is going around at all levels of the game. It is mid spring and players, umpires and fans from Little League to the big leagues have been out practicing, playing, calling and watching America’s favorite pastime.

My husband started umpiring for Little League when my son started playing in grade school. About a decade later, he is still at it because he has developed a love for umpiring. How can anyone develop a love for anything that is likely to involve jeering from the crowds or in your face confrontations from managers as can be seen caught on tape at many major league games? My husband’s response to that question often includes comments about personal growth and the challenge of staying focused in order to be able to take in all of the elements of play so that each call is accurate and the kids get a chance to play a fair and fun game that unfolds in an orderly fashion. He must be successful at this as he has been honored with an invite to umpire at the Little League regionals in Waco later this summer.

Evidently the answer to why someone would put so much time and effort into volunteer umpiring is of interest to the media as well. Recently, a reporter from Texas Country Reporter contacted another long time umpire, who has been rated as qualified to call at the Little League World Series, to find out what makes umpires tick. The reporter joined the weekly Saturday morning umpire breakfast and then followed my husband and his fellow umpire as they drove off to call games. The resulting story is slated to air on the weekend of May 21. The first photo in this post shows my husband after he dropped off his car after that breakfast to ride with the other umpire to that day’s games.

While I still don’t totally understand why my husband has developed such a strong case of baseball umpiring fever, I try and get out and support him at important games by being there. (Umpires really deserve their own fans too.) When I do, I like to add a bit of baseball bling to my outfit to show my support. I have designed baseball themed gathering pins that I wear as sleeve or bodice pins as seen in the second photo. These may be available through my EDCCollective shop.

No matter what level of baseball you enjoy participating in or supporting, have a great season!

Update: The Texas Country Reporter story actually ran on Sunday, August 7. Also, I posted a follow up about the 2011 Little League Southwest Regional Tournament.