Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Busy day for me so far. Today I fought the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa Region) and the Far East teams at the continental breakfast. Tomorrow, I will awaken at 4am to make sure I can have breakfast.  Every participant (including umpires) are staying at the hotel over the tournament, so while I am sure that works great for tournament staff, it sucks when it comes to amenities.

I helped out some of the tournament umpire staff and picked up the rental cars for the umpires today.  I am one of three official drivers.  I am driving around a 2010 Ford Edge. Nice car, now just to get my bearing straight and learn the layout of Portland :-).

Went back to the complex for lunch.  They will be making lunch and dinner for all of us each day we are there. We also took the official tour of the facility, went over ground rules and received our uniforms (many were incorrect in length, and mine look to be more heather gray than the charcoal gray that everyone else has... good thing I have my own pair with me). Not to mention that the two extra shirts I ordered did not come with a US Flag patch like the other two. Tomorrow we are taking a quick trip to Honigs and I will buy the flags to put on later.

My roommate came in late last night (around 1130pm). He is from the Southeast Region and a super guy. Know why? Because when he came in last night he didn't make a lot of noise!

As for our assignments, there are 12 of us, broken down into three crews of four. I am with an umpire from Willemstad, Curacao, one from Austin, Texas, and one from Terryville, Connecticut.  This is the crew for the first 12 games of the tournament.  I will get four games in three days.  More on that in a few minutes.

I received two shirts (Black and Pro Powder Blue), a pair of slacks (which many are having problems with), two hats (which are Youth Small/Medium sizes, but thanks to one of the umpire staff I got one to fit my head), a nice engraved plate brush, embroidered ball bag, and official credentials for the tournament.  There is also a place up here near the facility called "Art Larrance's Raccoon Lodge & Brew Pub" that gave each umpire a $100 gift certificate to use during the tournament.  We were told by staff that this is a first.  We are planning a night to go.

We also learned today that everyone will have an infield assignment on one of the three televised games.  Here is hoping I get one of the plates.

On a side note, everyone is loving my gifts.  I got duffel bags for all the umpires with their name and the WS logo on them.

So, here is what my schedule looks like the first three days:

Thursday, August 11, 2011
Game #2 (Stadium Field)
5:00pm
Host (Portland, Oregon) vs. Southeast (Wilkes County, North Carolina)
3rd Base

Friday, August 12, 2011
Game #5 (Stadium Field)
2:00pm
East (New City, New York) vs. EMEA (Milano, Italy)
2nd Base

Friday, August 12, 2011
Game #7 (East Field)
5:30pm
West (Westchester, California) vs. Canada (Windsor, Ontario)
1st Base

Saturday, August 13, 2011
Game #11 (Stadium Field)
12:30pm
Canada (Windsor, Ontario) vs. Latin America (Maunabo, Puerto Rico)
Plate



So I am VERY happy to be getting a plate game on the Stadium Field, which is a little nicer than the East Field.  They also have some exciting events going on for us umpires as well.  They have an umpire appreciation dinner on Saturday for us (they make a nice steak meal) then on Sunday is the Salmon BBQ that I guess is outstanding.

Well, I think I will call it a night.  If you have any questions or just want to say hi, please just drop me an email.