The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

- > ae Don Lawrence * Sports editor * The Midland Times As I See It Baseball umpires have long been misunderstood by players the world over but there really isn't any reason for the image the men behind the plate have received. The umprtre... umpires or bad umpires and you don't really need to be a Houdini to tell the difference. The umpires job is really quite simple on the surface. He must watch the pitch and determine if it is a ball or a strike depending upon where it crosses the plate. Some pitches can be arbitrary and in those cases, the umpire's word is final and it is up to coaches and players to respect that finality. The umpire is representative of fair play and the proper rules observed in any baseball game and it is his job alone to restore order where chaos might other- wise reign. When tempers flare, he must remain cool headed and be able to rationalize what has happened no matter how quickly it may have taken place. In order to do this, he may have to rely on the judgement of the base umpire.The base umpire must call the runners out or safe at the base and like the umpire, his word is final. Both men must be able to take constant abuse and they are seldom the heroes of a ball game. They are referred to as being blind and are often attributed with needing a seeing eye dog. Oftentimes, players and even coaches might infer they are not being totally unbias in their decisions. It is very seldom, indeed, if ever that these accusations can be backed up and an hero or villain? umpire has to call a very bad game to deserve these slurs. One wrong call is all it takes to turn an enthusiastic crowd into a lynch mob that's looking for a convenient scapegoat to blame their loss on, namely the umpire. In all fairness, the umpire must be looked up to for his ability to let insults and complaints roll off his back. In a time when umpires have even been assaulted physically because of a bad call, it's amazing to find someone with enough pride in the work they do to go back time after time to a job that is short on ap- preciation and long on patience. An umpire has a job to do and it can seem much easier if fans, coaches and players realize that fact. Like in anything, you can have good Gymnastic girls These girls have people doing cartwheels in more ways than one. They are the instructors in the summer program of the Huron Gym- nastic Club that is held in Penetanguishene at Corpus Christi School. The girls put young budding gymnasts through their paces with the youngsters getting the full benefit of a complete gymnastics program designed to by Dave Chalmers The Midland Novice Lacrosse team sponsored by A.E. LePage Real Estate were in Huntsville on Saturday for the first Annual Novice Lacrosse Tournament hosted by Huntsville Minor Lacrosse where they claimed the "'C" championship. The first game of the day saw Midland tangle with the arch rival Huntsville team and the game was filled with electricity as both teams battered goal posts and worked ex- tremely hard in the tightly played match. While the Midland crew were striving -to keep the Huntsville shooters away from the goal area, team captain Jesse Perrault exploded for an extremely powerful offensive effort as he fired a hat trick during regulation play. Chris Walser added a neat pair of goals and after regulation time, the score was deadlocked at five apiece. During the sudden death overtime, ovices are "C" champions Jesse Perrault once again came through with the winning goal and Midland came out on top 6-5. Game two of the tournament was a match between Cawthra and Midland with Cawthra narrowly escaping with a 6-5 overtime win. This second game was a carbon copy of game one as far as Jesse Perrault was concerned as Perrault carried the scoring load with another four goal game. A single tally was registered by John Brophey with Shaun Desjardins and goalie Shaun Price assisting on the play. A three-way tie developed after the second round action and Midland was awarded the "'C" championship as a result of their goals for and against record. One highlight during the day's action was that Midland's Chris Walser was selected outstanding player of the tournament for his solid two-way play. help them improve their skills on the gym- nastics aparatus. Montgomery, Tami Finley, Marni Ridout, From left: Anne-Claire Therrien. Brenda Spencer, Belinda Spencer, Tammy Ridout program as she did very capably last season. is co-ordinating the Digg Before Monday night's action, S. Charlebois Haulage Diggers had a good lead in Penetang-Midland Senior Division Ball Hockey League stan- dings, having amassed 15 wins and two ties for 32 points as the only team to have not lost a game. Second place was Dupuis Groceteria Leafs with 13 wins, three losses and one tie for 27 points and third belonged to Cumming- Nicholson Stompers with 12 wins, four losses and one tie for 25 points. The rest of the league shaped up like this: Dock Lunch Penguins with nine wins, six losses and two ties for 20 points; Stewart's Gulf Oilers with eight wins, seven losses and two ties for 18 points; Pen- Mid Merchants with seven wins, nine losses and one tie for 15 points; M. Forget Construction with five wins, 11 losses and one tie for 11 points; V. Robitaille Con- struction with four wins, 13 losses and no ties for eight points; E.G. Mink Insurance Premiums with three wins, 12 losses and two ties for eight points. League playoffs will begin tomorrow night with the bottom four teams taking part in a one-game __ elimination round. The seventh place team will take on the 10th place team at 8:15 p.m. and the eight place ers leading league into final weeks team will play the ninth place team at 9:30 p.m. At this time, it would mean M. Forget Con- struction will play the Hustlers and Ve Robitaille Construction would play E.G. Mink Insurance Premiums but that could change after the last two night's action. Quarter finals for the league will start at 9 a.m. Sunday morning in ABLE Bg Arena. Pontiettes entered in tournament Penetanguishene Stoneleigh Pontiettes will be entered in the Juvenile Regional PWSA Softball Tour- nament in Penetanguishene July 31 and Aug. 1, 2. It is one of two tournaments, the other taking place in Oakville with 12 teams playing in the Penetanguishene tournament and 13 playing in the Oakville tournament. The four top teams from both tournaments combined will go to the provincial competition. In the Penetanguishene tour- nament will be Penetanguishene Stoneleigh Pontiettes, Markham, Toronto A's, North Bendale, Chinaguacousy, Peff- erlaw, Guelph, Pickering, Oshawa, St. Mary's, Belleville and Thornhill. The team _ from Chinaguacousy is the same team that won the 1980 Canadian Midget Championship and is now involved in the World Youth Games in Edmonton. Action will get un- derway Friday night at p.m. with SE Bo Stoneleigh Pontiettes starting off with a game against Markham. The tournament is a double knock-out event and the quarter-finals should start around 9 a.m. Sunday morning with the final game taking place some time around 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Wednesday, July 15, 1981, Page 13