Thursday, August 28, 2006

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

Balks significantly down this year!

By Henry Altschuler & John Philbeck
Contributing Editors

It has been rumored that balks in NBUA officiated games have been down sixty-four percent this year. Of course, it has also been rumored that seventy-one percent of all statistics are made up on the spot. Neither of these rumors have hardly any basis in fact.

In a totally unrelated matter, our beloved Leo McKinley is still commuting down to Southern Oregon every Monday morning and returning to his Issaquah home every Friday night. Not only is this tough on him and his family, but it sure screws up his passion, his vocation ... umpiring.

In the past Leo has been able to work 150-180 games per year for NBUA. This year he has only 20 with the NBUA and 50 with Rogue Valley Umpires Association of Oregon. The good news is that Leo states he has been extremely fortunate to have enjoyed working many of the better games in that Southern Oregon region. Mr. McKinley doesn't want us to say anything about the excellence of his officiating or that he is probably amoung the top officials in Southern Oregon, so we won't. We'll also be very careful and not state that the assignments he has enjoyed down south this year are probably earned and very well deserved. Leo expects his commuting schedule to continue through 2009 during which time his presence will be sorely missed by NBUA.

In another totally unrelated matter, it is rumored that the Rogue Valley has seen a one hundred eighty-four percent increase in balks during the 2006 season.

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!