PAST DAY CAMPERS SEEN ON FACBOOK

I was just clicking through facebook and found a few of my past day camp kids via a Streets of Roselle group I found. I flipped through all of the people to see if I recognized anyone and I saw several of the kids I used to watch in the summer. They are now full grown adults, some going to college and some graduating from Lake Park this year. Wow, that makes me really old.

I was a day camp counselor for Roselle Park District's Tall Pines Day Camp for four summers during the end of high school and early college. I still have random dreams about losing a kid at a baseball game, doing crafts at the lodge and the other day I dreamt about going to the pool with the kids and having to find some kids missing sock.

This job played a big part in who I am today - it paid close to nothing - but it was a great way to spend the summer. I was able to be a real leader in this job, worked with a bunch of my close friends and I'd like to think I was a good role model for the children we watched.

I remember having all of the kids on the bus ready to leave the Rockford Cubbies game only to find out - after doing several head counts - that Brandon was no where to be found. Brandon was in kindergarten, one of the youngest we had on the field trip. I told my fellow counselors to stay on the bus with the kids while I went and looked for him. I didn't want to look like I was scared to death someone just abducted one of our campers, but I was! I walked through the stadium three times and finally found him. He was with my older brother Tom's day camp group. Tom was a counselor for the Bloomingdale Park District, he found Brandon wandering around aimlessly and took him into his pack of kids.

Tom said he wasn't really concerned about being lost from his group. He wanted cotton candy and took the money his mom gave him and bought some. He then walked around until he found my brother, who knew him and his family - knew how clueless this little guy was - so he kept him until I ended up meeting up with is group.

Looking back, taking 50 plus grade school kids to a baseball game was a huge responsibility. While I was doing it I had no fears. I never worried about losing a kid or having something bad happen to one of them. I believe having this type of responsibility early in my life was really good for me and helped me develop and mature at a quicker rate than some of my peers. I really hope the kids enjoyed the camp as much as I enjoyed it!

Shout out to my favorite day camp counselors: Eric, Adolfo, Gabby, Jennifer, Cathy Cassada, Alison Schroeder, Gigi, Lillie, Julie...and many more! Way to go Tall Pines Bunch...can you remember the songs I used to make the kids sing to all of their friends at the pool before we allowed them to change and go swimming? Good times!

TRIBUNE STORY SPARKS MEMORIES OF BEING A LITTLE LEAGUE UMPIRE

As reported in the Chicago Tribune today...

Dad gets 5 days in jail for softball tirade

A Hanover Park man who threatened a youth softball umpire and spit on a deputy sheriff was sentenced today to 5 days in jail and ordered to take anger-management classes.

Michael Beck, 47, of the 1600 block of Arlington Drive in Hanover Park pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of battery and assault and was sentenced by DuPage County Judge Peter Dockery to 5 days in the jail's work-release program. He also was put on 2 years' probation, ordered to perform 40 hours of public service and write letters of apology to the umpire and sheriff's deputy.

Beck was attending his daughter's softball game July 13 at Sunset Park near Downers Grove when he "became angry with the calls and responded with gestures and obscenities," Assistant State's Atty. Louisa Nuckolls said.

After threatening the umpire with physical harm, someone at the game called police. When the deputy arrived and Beck refused to cooperate, he was arrested, Nuckolls said. "He cocked his head and spit saliva and sunflower seeds on the deputy, and when he was told to stop, he did it a second time."

Beck had been charged with felony aggravated battery and faced up to 7 years in prison but accepted a plea agreement with a lesser sentence and apologized to Dockery.

This story reminds me of one of my first jobs in Roselle as a little league baseball umpire. I would get paid $75 a game to umpire 7 innings of 1st-5th grade baseball. It was a hard job, but the pay was worth it. I had to go to training in the winter at a high school to learn all the rules and after doing it for one summer, I felt like I was pretty good at it and because I love baseball, I enjoyed doing it. 

I will always remember one particular game where I was threatened by a players father. It was at Parkside Park, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. Keep in mind I was 13-14 years old a wearing shorts, ball cap, t-shirt, knee pads, face mask and a big black padded shield. A player hit the ball and ran to first base. He was clearly safe at first base but he turned the wrong way and the first baseman noticed this and went and tagged him and I called him out. (if you turn left to go back to the bag and the first baseman tags you , you are out. It's a basic rule) 

One fan started to get very angry and it was the father of the kid I just called out. He swore, turned red in the face and approached me in a very angry manner. I told both coaches the reason why he was out, warned the father if he kept up the angry comments he would be ejected from the field and started the game back up. 

The father wouldn't let it go and finally I stopped the game and said he was ejected. I wouldn't allow the game to go on unless he left the park. I believe her was drinking beer out of the mug he was drinking out of, but I didn't know for sure what he was drinking beer. If you throw someone out of a ball game you have to tell the head of the umpires and I told him my version f the events. 

A week later I received a letter from the wife of the man who was ejected from the game saying that if I lie about her husband and talk any more about the situation, she would take me to court and sue me for slander. She said her husband was drinking diet soda, not an alcoholic beverage. Blah, blah, blah. I was a young kid umpiring a lids baseball game and I was possibly going to be sued...for what, my baseball card collection? 

What a crazy situation to be in at such a young age. I think it made me stronger and realize there are crazies everywhere in this world!