Welcome to Connect, the Women's Yellow Pages eZine
for April

FROM THE DESK OF ELLEN FISHER, PUBLISHER, WOMEN'S YELLOW PAGES

Baseball season is always interesting in our house. I have an 'I don't care' attitude about it and my husband, Brian,  cherishes every statistic. The only time during the entire (long) season that our emotions reach a mutual crescendo is on February 14th when my beloved Valentine's Day coincides with the first day that pitchers and catchers report to duty.  

This year baseball fervor has reached an all-time high in our home. For Christmas, our next door neighbor paid for Brian to become an umpire. The gift was half-joke and half-serious. For years, as they have watched their teams (Brian is a hardcore Mets fan) battle it out on TV, Brian has always spoken of his desire to be an umpire. He considered dropping out of college to pursue the dream but squelched it because he knew his father would disapprove. Now, at the age of 56 it was about to become a reality. 

A month or so into the new year, the study materials, a thick booklet in tiny 7 point type, arrived in the mail. With my reading glasses on, I scanned it. I saw four million pieces of minutia about baseball and the job of umpiring; Brian saw the Holy Grail of insider information. Who really cares about the specific number of letters allowed on a uniform or the exact location (to the sixteenth of a inch) where a number gets placed on a sleeve? My husband, that's who. He grabbed the book and disappeared into the basement where he spent every free moment devouring the text. 

The week before the exam things really cranked up. Our next door neighbor, who also bought himself the gift of umpire-ship, practically moved into the basement with Brian. Talk was non-stop baseball - rules, regulations, exceptions to the rules and regs, and debates over ALL the fine points. 

The day of the test they were as nervous as high schoolers taking the SAT. Afterwards they both agreed that they were on the fence aboput passing. You would think the baseball chit-chat would have lessened. Instead, they hashed and rehashed every question on the test... and they were having a ball doing it. I confess that I felt a slight pang of jealousy over this, but I didn't let it show. Instead, I kept up my marriage-long tradition of poking fun at my husband's love of baseball. 

The day the test results came in the mail, complete with my husband's official umpire patch, was, unfortunately, bittersweet. You see, our next door neighbor didn't get a congratulatory envelope. All of a sudden there was an embargo on anything and everything baseball. The house was quiet, the neighborhood was practically in mourning. I tried to make nice dinners to console the guys, but nothing helped.

Two days later our neighbor got his envelope and patch. Thank goodness! And, just as I was beginning to enjoy the silence, the baseball volume increased once again. They practiced calling strikes, discussed whether to buy hats for fielding and the plate or just one combo cap, filled oput paperwork, got their criminal clearances, and anticipated their first meeting where they would meet their peers. That was followed by ordering the 100% polyester uniform, complete with chest guards, masks and umpire shoes (who knew!). 

At long last, Brian was assigned his first game - ninth grade baseball. When he did his pre-game, practice run of suiting up, he looked like a cross between a superhero and a trick-or-treater. Either way it touched my heart to see him so happy.

I wasn't invited to his first game, but our next door neighbor was. Brian sauntered out the door, pride in every step, as he carried his gear to the car. When he came home he told me, "That was the most fun I ever had working." He  didn't have to say anything; his huge smile and the excited twinkle in his eyes said it alll.

Being witness to watching a life-long dream/goal come to fruition has made me think about how important it is to get back in touch with the things we loved in our youth. I believe they contine to hold magic and maybe, just maybe, the answers to some of our career and life challenges. I am going to dig out my Barbies and see what happens.   
                                                            
Regards,                       
Ellen Fisher, Founder, Publisher and Wife of the Best Umpire in Delware County                                              

efisher@philawyp.com

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