Recommended reading?

[Mussgrass]

I am looking for recommendations for manuals / umpiring books. Christmas is coming, ya know!

The rule books and casebooks go without saying.

I umpire in a 12U rec league with "hodgepodge" rules. May move up to a county league that has 14U, 12U and 10U, all with Fed rules. coming year will be my 2nd.

Jeff

[udbrky]

Start with PBUC books.

You'll learn a ton with Wendelstedt.

[Mizzou2016]

Some for easy reading are the Carl Childress Books; not incredibly rules oriented, but I liked "151 ways to Ruin a Baseball game." He's got a handful on Amazon, I haven't read them all.

The first 'umpire' book I read was "As They See 'Em" by Bruce Weber. Basically a sports journalist goes to umpire school and shares anecdotes and bits of umpire history he picks up along the way. Again, not rules oriented, but a really great book.

 

[BT_Blue]

Other fun umpire boOKs to read are the three written by former MLB umpire Ron Luciano. Also there are great books by Durwood Merrill as well as Ken Kaiser. Both also former MLB umpires.

[dumbdumb]

Old AL Red Books and NL Green Books to read the umpires bio's. Saw these at a baseball card show once.

 

AL  ump Bill Kunkel played MLB (A's and Yankees), umpired MLB, and refereed NBA from 66-68 till his MLB call up in 68.

AL ump Jake O'Donnell worked both MLB, and the NBA from 67-71. He worked both the All Star game and LCS in 1971.

Until, figuring out he would get playoffs every year from the NBA but was on a rotation system with MLB, plus NBA only has 1/2 the games to work back then, when MLBU had no vacation.

O'Donnell and Kunkel came up at the end of 68 for the fired Bill Valentine and Al Salerno attempting to unionize.

And, when O'Donnell resigned in 1971 from MLB, none other than Jim Evans, who had worked 19 "call up" games in 71, took his vacated full time position in 1972.

Ok oK

for regular reading-the best seat in the house but you have to stand.

PBUC for the 2 man system, as mentioned above since the 2 man should be mastered first.

Check ou the 2016 MLBU Manual and the 2016 Official Baseball Rules. Of course these deal with OBR.

You can also check the College Manuals out to help learn all you can about umpiring. These (College and Pro) will help you as long as you understand them for positioning and the rules even though you may play under different rule sets for the levels you are working.

No matter how much you ever learn, just remember. When in Rome do as the Romans do.

Example, if you were to go to an umpire clinic that talks about staying fair at 1B with nobody on and a ball hit right at the 2nd baseman,

but, your local umpire trainer/supervisor wants you to go foul on those every time, go ahead and go in foul territory. Not worth arguing about. You can easily revert back to staying fair if another supervisor wants you to go fair. They each have their reasons and it is not worth arguing about. One day when you are the supervisor and you want umpires to stay fair, then things can change. If you are ever asked what you learned at a clinic about a ball hit right to the 2nd baseman, don't lie. Just tell them they were teaching to go fair, and the reason they thought that was better. Don't try to demand/berate/be a smart acre, etc.etc. or change your supervisor. Better to have them back you to the hilt doing it their way, than doing it someone else's way, even if that way may be a little better statistically.

Good luck, learn all you can about rules in general at all levels, positioning at all levels and go to as many on classroom and on field clinics as you can.

[goody14]

I can think of at least reference book I would recommend...

[ScubaUmp]

Verbal Judo, 151 ways to ruin a baseball game

[maineump]

Look at NASO website - some good videos to look at and some good books. If you are using NFHS rules a lot, there is a picture version of the rules there as well. https://store.referee.com/baseball

Attending a clinic always helps, it isn't so much as rules, but how to work a game and manage a game.

I would recommend anything that explains the rules over the rule book itself or a casebook, as understanding the intent is important in how they are enforced.