The last few days have been nearly overwhelming. Baseball games, scheduling umpires, you name it. Too much to go into.

Four days into the season and I've already been stood up by umpires twice. And now I just had a guy call to say he can't make a game tomorrow because he has a soccer game. I can't go calling around at 10:30 at night, so tomorrow I go into panic mode. Oh, and he can plan a lot more time at soccer now, too...

Had a good baseball game tonight, though. Saturday's game was ugly. Out team won, 19-17. A sloppy, ugly game. But tonight's game was pure baseball. Our team won again, 10-3. A high score, to be sure, but mostly well played and a lot more palatable than Saturday's game. Son got on base twice with nice hits and got batted in both times. He's one helluva a good infielder and catcher. He absorbs hard knocks at the plate and keeps going. Thing is, it's nights like tonight that make managers want him in the outfield. He fielded the ball and made an accurate throw to second from what looked to be two counties away.

Fortunately, we had our best umpire working the tonight as he was confronted with a pretty technical call. I'd probably have bolloxed it if I were behind the plate. We'll try something new:

YOU MAKE THE CALL

There are runners on 1st, 2nd and 3rd and less than two outs. The batter takes a called 3rd strike, but the catcher drops it. The batter heads for 1st and the runner at 3rd heads for home under full throttle. The catcher retrieves the ball and tags home plate, but not the runner.

Well?

It could be fun to see some more situations like this and see who knows the answer, a lot less fun if I happen to be calling the game where it occurs.

By the way, I'm watching "Band of Brothers" out of the corner of my eye as I write this. Read the book years ago and saw it once already, but it's a compelling show. They get high marks for accuracy. As an example, it's the only WWII movie where I can ever recall seeing and hearing the en bloc clips pop out of the M1s when the last round is fired. One the other hand, the computer generated jump scenes are jarring. I know you can't stage a mass jump on a WWII scale, but somehow they pulled it off with cinematography in "A Bridge Too Far". There's a scene in "A Bridge Too Far" where someone makes a staticline jump with a camera strapped to him and it gets me every time. I remember every sensation, including the one where the ground suddenly rushes up at you and you go "Oh, s**t". Thump.