Up With Stupid!

Apparently this is going to be the week for stupid. I'm not sure stupid deserves or even NEEDS its own week, but it sure seems to be starting out that way.

It all started Sunday ...

Let me first apologize for the fact that the explanation of these two events might be a little long. I know you have things to do and can't hang around here all day so I'll do my best. I just hope it's worth the wait.

So where was I, oh yeah, Sunday. We were at my daughter's softball tournament (this is a regular weekend thing so no biggie there.) We were watching her teams older counterpart (she plays 12U and we were watching the 14U team play).

The other team had a couple early calls against them that they weren't happy with. It happens. I've been around sports long enough that you are gonna get calls going your way and some against you. You are going to get an official that seems to be a complete idiot and you are gonna get good ones. It's just part of the game. There was nothing wrong with the calls this umpire made, for the record, they just happened to be against the other team.

Apparently the other team is one of those whose coaches and fans are of the belief that if they don't go home with that big trophy that the world will certainly end and nobody will like them anymore. Who cares whether the girls have fun or not. Who cares whether you look like an @SS! Sorry, enough ranting ... here it is ...

It's the other teams turn to come up to bat. Their third base coach is walking over to his spot at 3rd. About halfway to the base he makes a comment about how the umpire should learn the rules. This is where a very large gentleman sitting in front of us replies back through the fence to him. "Those are the rules!"

Now, by "large" I mean "football player / wrestler / beat the ever living crap out of you large" not the "i sit on my couch eating potato chips all day large".

Its then that the (much smaller) 3rd base coach turns and says "Why don't you shutup!"

The very large man in front of us immediately stands up and says, "Okay, that's enough of that! This is gonna stop!"

I started to see if I had any money. If there was gonna be a smackdown I was gonna try and get in on some action. Dang out of cash ...

So the big guy walks over to where the 3rd base coach is STILL running his mouth. (Keep in mind there is still a fence between them). The big guy from our bleachers says 3rd base coach needs to stop acting like a tool (I don't remember the exact words but the idea is there.)

3rd base coach looks toward home plate, points at the umpire and says, "Why don't we just go get the Umpire-In-Charge to make this STUPID FAN sit down and SHUT UP!"

The umpire calmly turns, looks at the 3rd base coach and says in a calm polite voice ... "That IS the umpire-in-charge".

O.M.G.!!!!! The coach of the other team just told the umpire-in-charge to "shutup" and called him a "stupid fan"!!!! I nearly cried I was laughing so hard!!!! Good luck protesting any calls now you moron!!!!

(I think I'll leave Monday's stupidity for tomorrow or the next day...)

Are We Insane?

Okay, before everyone hits the comment section without reading the rest of this, don't answer that!

When we signed up our little girl (11) to be on a traveling softball team it seemed like such a good idea at the time. I know this is going to seem like a "yeah but you're her dad so you're gonna say that" moment, but, she really is an amazing player. She holds a grasp of the game that amazes us. Apparently, we used to have a quite athletic mailman! (I'll pause for a second to let that one sink in.)

I'm not displeased with the way things have gone. She's learned a lot and to be honest we've gotten a LOT for the money we had to pay at the beginning. 3 uniforms, bat bag, helmet, cleats and entry into a bunch of tournaments.

However, we are also in a "league". This league plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the coach plans on using these games as "practice" for the tournaments on the weekends. Again this is all fine, (besides the fact that only Monday and Wednesday most weeks she doesn't play -- yeah 5 out of 7 days are softball) except that the team s we play are not exactly CLOSE to home. The team we play tonight is an hour and half drive from my house. She has to be there by 5:30p. This means my wife, GOD BLESS HER, will be leaving work at 3pm to run home, get my daughters, turn around and drive again for 1.5 hours where we'll watch softball from 6pm until 9pm (yes it's a double-header) then drive again 1.5 hours home. If you have the simple math skills you know what this means ... if you don't I'll spell it out. We would get home at 10:30pm tonight. Assuming we actually stop somewhere to EAT ... later than that. Let's hope they have no school work. Oh yes, still in school ... so going to get home 10:30pm or later on a SCHOOL NIGHT !!!! Probably a good thing there are only two days left of school.

Okay, go ahead ... answer the question now ... not that I don't know what the answer is!!!