Monday, August 7, 2006

The irrelevant & irreverent ramblings
of a couple of your partners in blue

By Henry Altschuler & John Philbeck
Contributing Editors

One of my most beloved aspects of membership in NBUA is the close camaraderie and kinship we share collectively. To quote a quite famous author and historian, "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve...".

We members of the NBUA have a common bond that goes deeper than most groups and associations. We are able to relate and share experiences that are unique to our perspective on events. It doesn't matter if we are a first year member or a grizzled old veteran, we all have an understanding and admiration for the work, dedication, focus, self-awareness and plain old moxie required to arbitrate the national pastime in front of a group of highly critical people, all of whom know the game better and have much better skills and angles than any we could possibly hope to obtain.

As a result of this we form a family of sorts that can commiserate, berate, squabble and yet always respect each and every other member of our association. Regardless of our level of skills, physical abilities, emotional capacity and experience, we all still know what we love, hate, endure and crave between the lines and in our dressing rooms. We draw strength and give support. We congratulate and constructively criticize. We share war stories and happy surprises. Most importantly, we honor and laugh with our friends, partners and comrades, both on and off the field.

The Yankee and Stonewall are going to hopefully contribute to the special relationships we all enjoy and share a few experiences of our partners in this column. These stories may be about events both on and off the field. They may be about our members or characters we all meet around baseball. There will be happy times, challenging times, exciting times and mundane events. Collectively, you will hopefully find our ramblings interesting, informative and inspirational.

Let us know about your experiences, moments you were selected to witness and stories you would like to see related to members of the best association around. The Northwest Baseball Umpires Association.

John "Stonewall" Philbeck can be reached at st1jrp@comcast.net. Henry "the Yankee" Altschuler can be reached at calledstrike@yahoo.com. Story ideas are welcomed and encouraged!