Reflections of a Little League Umpire

Well, it seems that I am done umpiring for the spring/summer season and I wanted to go back and write down some of the things I went through this season. Let me say, this was my first season as an umpire and it definitely won't be the last. I had a blast getting back into baseball and people have told me that I lost weight during the season, so it was exercise (or I sweated it all off behind the plate while in full gear.) Some of the highlights of the season:

1) It was like my second game. Angels (who went 20-2 this season) vs. Yankees. Kid hits a ball right down the first base line. I look, and look, then call it fair as it hits the yellow line. Angels coaches not too happy. Then I look again, reevaluated, then call the homerun as the ball went off the foul pole. Coaches now really unhappy, but I stick by my call. I think I got it right.


2) It must have been my 10th game. I made a call at the plate that apparently the catcher didn't like. He turned around and said, "You suck!" I was in shock at this point and didn't do anything. After the inning I went to his coach and said, "If I hear that again for the rest of the season, I'm tossing him from the game." The League President said that if she hears something like that happening, the kid is out 2 games minimum.

3) Last game of the season for the Yankees and Angels. I've done about 60 games by this point so the coaches know me, my style, and I know them. The Angels are up by 14 or so in the bottom of the 6th (they scored them all in the top of the 6th. I thought, I'm going to give the Yankees their last ups since this is the last game of the season even though I could have called it for mercy rule. It's the last game and they needed some kind of confidence. It was bad though since the Angels kept scoring in the top of the 6th. Not very confidence building.) So, the Yankees end up scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th (preventing the shutout) which was good. Two outs and the kid who told me that I sucked in memory two is up to bat. I've let it go by this point. He's caught a few games since then and it was cool. He hits a pop fly towards the 3rd base line which falls about 2 inches foul from my point of view. The manager, who is in the third base box, doesn't like the call (this would have scored another 1 or 2 at least) and turns around frustrated. He says, "If it would have been the Angels, I may have gotten the call." Now, on it's face, he said he was making a comment about the Angels, but to me, he was questioning my integrity -- saying that I was rooting for the Angels. Now mind you, the two Angels coaches, Bret and Roy, are good guys that I could even see myself hanging out with on the outside and I enjoyed talking with them throughout the season, but I call games fair. It's not right for me to cheat the kids by playing favorites. At this point, when Steve (manager of the Yankees) says this, I call time, stand up, and cool off for a second. After the game, Steve thought I was going to toss him right there. I calmed down, and called for the next pitch. I forgot what happened, but the third out happened pretty shortly afterward without another run scoring. I went to Steve as soon as the game was done and said, "I know you are frustrated, but that comment was totally out of line." He acknowledged, but was still frustrated and didn't say anything. About 15 minutes later, as I'm heading out to my car, he comes up to me and says, "If I ever say anything like that again, kick me out of the game." He realized what he had said and felt bad. We ended up talking for a while. I like Steve too.

4) In fact, I like the group up at the league. Mrs. Strong is great. Mr. Ford is great. The managers I had the opportunity to work with were cool. In the heat of the moment, sometimes tempers got riled, sometimes words were said that probably shouldn't have been said, but the kids are what are important and we all got that across.

5) Through the season, I saw teams that were good that played that way, teams that were overmatched that played that way and teams that were good that their attitude stopped them from doing well and they underachieved and another team that was overmatched but played with so much heart and discipline that they overachieved. It's hard to do bad if you have too much talent and hard to win if you are rebuilding, but those middle teams showed me that attitude and heart are the difference between 3rd and 4th place, between the coach having an all-star team and the coach watching all-stars from the bleachers. I was so impressed with how Coach Strong (the president's husband) ran his team. They called everyone sir or ma'am. They were respectful. They never gave up. And they overachieved. I'm looking forward to seeing them next year.

6) I umpired on the bases for a 9-10 year old all-star game. It was the league I umped at all season vs. another league. I did the bases since they wouldn't let me do the plate (makes sense. Home Plate Umpire has a lot of influence and they don't want the illusion of favortism.) The game went so against the my league's team in the calls that the kids thought I was cheering against them. One of the kids, on a close call at first, turned to me and said, "Why are you on their side!?" I wasn't. Everything inside of me wanted them to win, but I was not going to make calls that are against what I see that are going to benefit them. If they are going to win the game, they were going to win it on their own, not with my assistance. It was the hardest game I'm umped and looks like it may be for years. They lost. They didn't talk to me after the game (the kids, parents were ok.)

There are other umpire stories and people I will look back on this first season, but I wanted to get down some of the major ones.

Here's the verse that really exempifies Coach Strong and his team. Something for me to strive for:
"We are full of joy even when we suffer. We know that our suffering gives us the strength to go on. 4 The strength to go on produces character. Character produces hope. " Romans 5:3-4