My first day as an umpire. Ahhh, I remember it well.
I had gone through my classroom and on the field training. I had gone to the clinic our association had which was instructed by MiLB umpires. I had all my gear. The assignor had placed me in 2 AAU 9 tournament games. The site information read XXXX elementary in the Assign by Web system, I arrived about an hour early. I walked the field, but there were no teams there yet. About 20 minuets later my partner arrived. We decided to call the assignor. He couldn’t understand why there were no teams here, then he figured it out. He had listed the sight as XXXX elementary instead of XXXX park which was about 30 miles away. We high tailed it to the correct site and arrived to a loud applause in the 2nd inning.
I was on the bases first and the game went well for me. No tough/close calls. I was actually impressed by the playing ability of these kids. My partner had an ejection, I couldn’t tell you for what today, but I quickly learned that this guy needed to make an ejection quota every game.
The second game was my first plate, and I can still remember my heart was pumping like crazy for maybe the first two innings. Then came my first non-routine call. It was a catcher’s interference call. This one was not the easiest one to call I thought I saw it and I was pretty sure I heard it. Well the coach came out to discuss the call with me.
I didn’t know really how to handle coaches at that time. In hindsight I did too much talking. But the coach went away. I didn’t change my call, but was now second guessing myself if there was actually interference. I was thinking about it for the remainder of the inning.
Between innings I found out the tournament director was actually the one who was keeping score for the game and he came out to bring my partner and me water. He told me great call on the interference. Which really made me feel better.
Wouldn’t you believe the next half inning I had another catcher’s interference. This one was literally painfully easy to call. The batter hit the catcher’s glove half way to the mound and the catcher was on the ground crying.
Well here I was with 2 games under my belt and feeling pretty good about myself. As I’m at the
umpires locker room parking lot. My cell phone rings and it’s the assignor asking if I would be able to do 2 more games in about half an hour at another field about 10 miles away. Of course I accept.
I get there about 15 min before start time and meet my partner, who was just called as well. He arrived a few minuets earlier than I and had already dressed for the plate. All either of us knew about the games is the location. My partner then told me that he was an evaluator for the organization and pulled out his eval notebook.
We start game 1 on time. I’m on the bases and all went fine I got a few close plays, but nothing beyond the normal. My mechanics were weak at best. My timing was horrid at best. But we got through the game. We head back to the cars and I’m listening intently to my partner critique my game on the bases. Just to put how bad I was in perspective, we didn’t get to finish his critique of the first game before we had to get back to start the second.
My partner and I get to the concession stand to get the baseballs for the second game when this lady asks us to hold the door open because she is carrying a case of huge beautiful trophies, and the person behind her has smaller yet still beautiful trophies for the runners up. Once we get in we are told that the last game was the final for the losers’ bracket and this was the championship game of the tournament. With the winner getting an automatic bid to the nationals. My partner and I look at each other in disbelief.
We go out to the plate and hold the plate conference. I’m sure that the coaches could tell right then and there I was a rookie. Well it didn’t take long for me to show my inexperience. My strike zone didn’t have a low-and-away corner. The kids kept pitching there and I would ball it. In the second or third inning a coach came out to discuss the strike zone. I didn’t know that was a no-no then and I actually engaged him in the discussion. He was all over me like white on rice.
As he was leaving me an assist coach from the other team yells ‘he hasn’t been calling that all night, get over it and pitch somewhere else.’ This caused a small spat between the coaches which my partner had to get under control because I didn’t know what I was doing.
The game continued and I was being eaten alive by that coach from the bench he was inciting his crowd to do the same. They continued to pitch to the low-and-away corner and I continued to ball it. The catcher was throwing me under the bus left and right too, but I was too inexperienced to fully realize it. Every pitch that was there the coach would yell to his catcher, “Where was that one?”
The catcher would reply, “It’s perfect” or “right in there.” The catcher would hold the pitch 2-3 seconds after I had balled it. He cleaned the plate off a few times for me, when it didn’t need it. All of which I wouldn’t tolerate now.
There was a fan for the losing team who was becoming belligerent towards me and was really getting under my skin, much more than the coach. I, not knowing yet that I didn’t have authority to toss a fan, ejected the man and then refused to continue the game until he was gone. As typical when working with a bad partner, the other one has to clean up the mess. The man left for a few minuets and then returned. I did not see or hear him, but may partner did and he was now forced to back me up on keeping him away.
Also sometime in the game I had a batter of the losing team be hit by a pitch on the shoulder as he was swinging. I attempted to award the kid first. The coach came out to me and told me I was wrong and that it was strike 3 and the kid was out. He asked me to appeal to my partner and so I did. The coach was correct and I then declared him out. Here comes my friend the losing coach who was on me once again. He was demonstrating, cursing, bringing up history, virtually everything short of physical contact. I still did not toss him.
That game I don’t believe I moved from behind the plate once, leaving a very large burden on my partner.
The game was not close it was just short of a
10RR. When the game ended my partner comes running in to the plate to get me. He said something like, “Drop the balls left in your bag right where you are and let’s get the hell out of here, Now.” We didn’t leave through the same gate we came in through we exited through a gate in the right field corner as far away from everybody as possible. We had to park rather far away so when the game was over there weren’t too many cars around us.
The post game discussion probably took an hour and a half for him to cover everything with me. Since I think they have to say something nice about everybody he told me I had a good post game discussion. I was somewhat surprised that he didn’t tell me to hang it up and try to get a refund for you equipment. He did admit that it was the assignors fault to put me in that situation where I was way over my head, being in a 14 y/o championship game.
I did consider quitting. My confidence was gone. It probably took me 10-15 games to recover from that one. I didn’t think there was a future in umpiring for me.
Obviously, I stuck with it and strangely enough I was evaluated about 15 times that season, the most in the association and 10 of those evals were with the partner I had in those games. In hindsight this was actually a good thing and I had someone who could watch me develop into a much better umpire and be there to show me how to improve. Each time we worked together he would comment on my improvement and help me even more. I had my last game of the season with him and we each knew it would be the last of the season, so he brought some beer for us to celebrate with. His hard work and dedication to me obviously did work out well because I did get promoted at the end of the season and I owe a lot to this umpire. He’s my unofficial mentor.
I then probably went a year or more without having any games with him. When the scholastic season was over one year I asked our assignor to give us a game together, which he was happy to do. Once again he commented on my improvement.
This year he ran the pre-season scrimmage that I was assigned to. At the post game discussion I sat down and asked him what he had for me. His only negative comment was, “Get rid of that pansy ball bag.” Speaking of my Ump-Attire Ultimate Ball Bag which I love. I went home and ordered 2 new traditional ball bags. And at our next pre-season meeting I brought them with me in my pocket and after the meeting showed him. He relpied, “Now, your finally a real umpire.”
I sometimes look back at this game and think how far I've come. Then I will look at some of the most senior guys in the association and think how far I have yet to go.
My first day as an umpire -- LONG
