I have been working so hard on perfecting that backroll, and the darn Hungarian judge only gave me 4.5 on the technical and 6.2 on artisitic interpretation.  But as my friend Rich from Palmdale put it, I'm consistent.  For those of you that remember, I also went horizontal during the Softball WS back in '98.

OK, so here's the story.  The game was at Volunteer field.  And it has something we call "the ledge".  You can't see it on TV, but that field slopes, SHARPLY, literally 4 ft downwards, behind the plate (for drainage purposes).  You're fine for the first few ft behind the plate, but after that it drops, A LOT, QUICKLY !!! We've been warned all week, and done our best to avoid it, but you know me, had to be the first. 

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there was a pop-up behind the plate.  I tried to open up a path for the catcher but I didn't see which way the ball went so when I chose right, so did the catcher.  I took a second step away from him and he followed.  He fell and I took a third step away from him but there was "THE LEDGE".  And down I went, backwards roll, the whole 9 yards.   Took quite a bit of ribbing from the crew, as you would imagine, but all in good fun.

Tomorrow it's back to 2 games.  3B at noon on the Lamade Field (finally) for a consolation game (Europe vs MidWest).  Teams are guaranted 3 games here, and the consolation games are set up for the teams who went 0-2 in their first two games.  Don't think they're televised, but who knows.  I come back at 8:00 in an elimination game on 2B, also at Lamade (New England vs. Great Lakes).  Don't forget, those times are 3 hours off from home.