“How do I want to go out?“
After decades of umpiring baseball I found myself asking myself that question many times. It’s hard to imagine saying goodbye to something that has been such a part of my for so long. But I know that my future plans no longer include time for baseball, so as I thought about my parting, I came up with wild notion.
How about a farewell tour?
So after much consideration and many conversations with Debbie, I decided on not one, but TWO farewell tours. The first would be to say my farewell to my high school colleagues in the state of Washington. With that, for my final high school season in 2022, I will be traveling to each of the state’s 22 baseball regions to work a game in each service area. I’m hopeful that the campaign ends with a final trip to the state championships, but that is still yet to be decided.
My second tour will embark shortly after the final day of my working career at Zillow. On April 2, 2023, we will be piling into Debbie’s BMW X1 for a four-month long tour around the 50 states (well, Alaska and Hawaii by plane, of course). This time the goal is to work a game in each of the 50 U.S. states. Over the course of four months we will wind our way throughout the country, working on fields bog and small, wit partners of all backgrounds and experience levels, with one goal in mind – to feel the pulse of the game throughout the nation one last time before hanging the gear up for good.
For right now, it’s all planning and details. But there is a lot to be done and the time keeps nearing ever faster. I just put the preliminary schedule for the Washington dates in place. Nine month until the first pitch. Not a lot of time.
As for the name of these tours, it’s a bit of a play on a high school base running rule that it indeed called “Last Time By”. I couldn’t think of a more apropos title.
We hit the ground running July 1. It’s going to be as much fun putting this together as it will be pulling out the tours themselves.
Can hardly wait.