Alan Sopczak - Jim Evans Desert Classic Report

October 17 - too darn early!

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The adventure begins!

At the incredibly early hour of 4:20 AM Dennis picks me up in front of my house. We have a very early flight, 7 AM, and figure getting there around 5 AM should work out well. We decided to go down early to take in some local colour and the sites.

To our surprise, at the Calgary airport, there is not much of a lineup and we get right through. Check-in and customs was a breeze and before long we are waiting to board. The first leg of our journey is to Phoenix.

We had been sitting on a plane for quite a while and that is why I assume they made sure that our connecting flight was pretty well at the other end of the airport - get that blood flowing again. The flight from Phoenix to Tucson was an up-and-down flight. Get in the plane, take off, get altitude, descend into Tucson, land.

After some initial confusion at the airport regarding where we should be picked up and the school running a little bit behind a phone call to the hotel got us a shuttle pickup.

At the hotel it was hurry up and wait. The boys with the school, who had to handle our check-in, we're not quite ready. However, since we were not in any hurry it was not that big a deal. we got our room and our meal vouchers and got settled in. We then had the opportunity to chat with Jason about what was to happen and be the first ones to look at what they have for sale.

Since we had planned to arrive a few days early just so we could take in some of the local color and sites we started to plan what we would do. We decided to head off to a local flea market and then try and find the complex where the course would be held.

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We did a fair bit of walking but construction halted our seeing the complex until later in the week. We did see a nice sunset. (picture at right)

The hotel had a nice policy of offering to drive and pick us up anywhere within a 5 mile radius. The next morning I decided to head to see the Pima air and space Museum. Here are a few sample pictures. (Pima Air Museum - click to view)

When I got back to the hotel after spending five hours at the Museum I got a chance to meet with and talk with some of the instructors.

I had an opportunity to explain what I was looking for and the reason I came down there. One of the major areas I was looking for improvement in was my on diamond mechanics. I got an opportunity to specifically ask some of the instructors some pointers and to request some very specific items.

I asked if would be possible for them to watch my particular actions in certain situations so that they were aware what I was looking for and could assist me in that regard. Overall I found this worked very well.

I also employed a particular device to get them to remember me. I brought down a number of Baseball Canada stamped baseballs. They were still wrapped in plastic and I handed these out to the instructors and others associated with the school. They remembered who the umpires from Canada were. The other thing which helped, during the course, was the Maple leafs Dennis brought (iron on) and we put on our t-shirts.

It did work to have them remember who I was and during the course seemed to trigger their remembrance of my requests regarding mechanics.

On the Sunday, during dinner in the bar, Dick Nelson came over and asked if he could sit with me. This

Dick Nelson
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proved to be a very interesting dinner. The whole time Dick asked me questions about rules, position and place on a diamond and a whole host of other umpire related questions. It was most interesting and he would not let me get away with a cheap or incomplete answer. It definitely set the tone of how the course would be run.

That dinner also showed me the little conversation I had with Dick in the hospitality room was remembered. A lot of the conversation dealt with areas I expressed my need to improve in.

On the Monday Dennis and I rented a car and headed down the highway to

Dennis at Titan
Museum
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visit the Titan missile base. It was a most interesting visit and it was too bad we did not have more time and could've arranged for the full tour. On the way back from the Titan missile base we stopped in at a mission which is undergoing renovation.

The first day of the course was the 20th. It did not actually start until that evening with an introduction to the instructors and the long talk by Jim Evans. Jim definitely has a lot of interesting stories and experiences to relate. He does seem concerned about making sure that we got out of it what we were expecting. The only complaint I would have is that it is easy to sidetrack Jim and get him talking, and talking and talking.

One little disappointment was that we were told that no cameras were allowed at any of the sessions. The reason was most interesting.

It was fascinating to look around and see the wide range of ages of people who were taking this course. There were people from 20 years old to 60 years old. And, it was nice to see, that there was one woman taking the course.

The next morning began the usual course of events. Every morning spend the first few hours in the bar, have lunch, head to the diamond. The days started at eight o'clock and usually went until about 6:15 PM or 6:30 PM.

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