That's a First!

Well, Saturday was the big baseball game between Southwestern (Chris' team) and Waldron (Jacob's team). Prior to the game even beginning, Chris was throwing batting practice for the kids, one of whom hit a line drive directly back to the pitcher's mound. Chris didn't have the protective screen up, and he didn't have time to get out of the way or even put his glove up. The ball hit him in the chest directly over his heart. To be honest, he's truly lucky it wasn't a little bit higher or he could have been very seriously hurt (think of that coach that died last year after taking a hit to the temple). So he's been in quite a bit of pain; we don't think he broke any ribs, but I definitely think he's bruised the bone. Of course, we'd never know for sure because he won't let me take him to a doctor.

But that was only the FIRST exciting thing that happened the day of the double header. In the first inning of the first game, the umpire was making some truly inconsistent calls. This is the same ump that Chris got into an argument with last year, so he knew it would be a difficult day. Chris called the ump on his inconsistency in calling balls and strikes (fairly politely... he didn't even leave the dugout), which made the ump angry. The ump told Chris to leave the umpiring to him, to which Chris replied "Well, I wish you'd start umpiring!". Honestly, I thought that was pretty clever! But at that point the ump lost his temper and ejected Chris from the game!!! It's almost unheard of for a coach to be ejected from a game unless he gets physically in the face of the umpire or uses profanity, so everyone thought this was completely ridiculous(well, the SW fans anyway... or maybe it was just SuperFan Dave and me... who knows?)!!!

Now, whenver a coach gets ejected, he must leave the facility, so Chris had to go and sit far away near the bus. An ejection also means that in addition to the game the coach is ejected from, he must serve another game's suspension. Before Chris actually left the facility, he walked towards the umpire to ask him if he would have to serve his suspension in the next game (the second game of the double header) or if he could put it off and serve the suspension at their game on Monday. This is a basic rules question that the umpire should have known. But the ump didn't know the rules! Chris REALLY lost his temper at that point and told the umpire that he was completely pathetic that he couldn't even call a simple game and didn't know how to enforce the rules!

Waldron won the first game of the doubleheader. I'm pretty sure Jacob wasn't too happy about some calls either, so at least the ump was consistenly horrible (as odd as that sounds). It was a pretty good game, especially because the teams are evenly matched. Southwestern won the second game, which means they have won a total of two games this year. That is the highest number of wins since 2004, which is a little sad, but at least they're showing some improvement! I didn't stay for the second game; I didn't see much point since the only reasons I go are to support Chris as he's coaching... and to check out his cuteness in that baseball uniform!

That pretty much sums up the excitement for the weekend! Now I've got to go check on Chris (his game today was cancelled due to the weather) and make sure he's keeping the ice I gave him on his chest to help with the swelling and bruising!