A Few Things You Might Not Know (Part 1)

Many of us are former coaches…

At the three parks where I officiate, almost all of us have been former managers and assistant coaches, in many cases at the travel ball level. Some of my colleagues are still coaching. We understand the expectations of the coaches, what they are looking for and how they might react in certain situations. We also know the little tricks managers employ so there’s not much that will surprise us from the dugout.

Most of us are serious about umpiring…

We go to instructional classes, take tests and attend camps. Each year a few of us head to the Southern Umpires Camp for four days. It’s an investment in time and in money (our own) and the return makes it well worth it.

Not only are we usually closer to the play than any coach or fan, we almost always have the best angle...

If you’re a fan sitting in chair, 120 feet away from the play and behind a chain-link fence, do you really think you saw the play better than the umpire? Even if you are a coach on the field, as umpires we’re looking to have the best angle on the play. Many times that is more important than being closer to the play. Which leads us to…

We don’t care…

We don’t care if a player is out or safe, if a pitch is a ball or strike, or which teams wins. Each team and their fans want every call and every pitch -- they’re invested in each play but the umpires are not. We just call what we see and our objectivity helps us get it right.

If you don’t like the call, yelling isn’t going to help…

We understand that not everyone is going to agree with every call and we realize that fans and coaches are going to complain. That will not, though, help you get the next call. We call what we see regardless of who will agree and regardless of what we called on the last close play. If we started trading calls, that will lead to even more complaining.

Familiarity and friendships mean little…

We might know a player or coach or parent on the home team but when the game starts all that goes out the door. The game moves too quickly, even down at the 11-year-old level, to try and give a team a break or two. If we miss a call, there’s nothing else going on, we just missed a call. Which leads us to…

We miss calls...

We hate it but we do. We’re not perfect and we try to get every call right, but it happens. We don’t give make-up calls and we move on. There’s never been a game where I’ve thought I had a perfect outing, got every call and every pitch correct. There’s always room for improvement.