Today is the last day of the bracket round robin. The top four teams from each of the two brackets advance to Taipei for the remainder of the tournament. Going into today's games, the United States and Chinese Taipei have sewn up the first and second seeds and play tonight for first place in our bracket. Japan is also guaranteed a spot, and Panama, Mexico and Italy are battling it out for the last spot.
Our crew today consisted of Carlos Campechano on the plate (Mexico) and Neil, myself and one of the Taiwan umpires at first, second and third, respectively. Our game was the noon start at Taichung Stadium. We had almost no crowd and the game went very smoothly. Japan got off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Spain took a 3-2 lead mid-game, and Japan tied it up in the bottom of the 8th. They scored again in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. No issues or problems, and we were back at the hotel by 3:30 pm.
After updating this blog, I need to start packing for Taipei. We have an off-day tomorrow as the umpires, teams and tournament officials from Taichung head up there for the weekend and the conclusion of the tournament. I'm not looking forward to having to find a place for all this gear. I think I'll have a fire sale in the lobby tomorrow morning and start giving equipment, T-shirts, etc. away in preparation for the flight home. I'll eat dinner in the hotel dining room tonight, and then probably watch the US - Chinese Taipei game on television. I think a bunch of us are going to go back to Frog's one last time, and then may go out to a disco club after that. I'm looking forward to being reunited with Dits, Runch, and Carlos Rey, who I know from my time in Puerto Rico back in the winter of 1991-92. It will also be good to spend some time with the other umpires from Taipei, who I haven't spent any time with since the opening party.
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