Professional Umpire School

[Nate]

Hey Guys,

I just signed up to go to Evan's in the winter. I finally decided to suck it up and just go. I just split up with my girl friend and decided now is the time to take advantage of it. I will be putting my name on the PBUC list, so hopefully I graduate as an honors student. I haven't been around here in a while, but some of you older members may remember me. If any of you have gone, tips would be greatly appreciated!

Nate

[umpirecordova]

Best of luck to you. I went in the winter of 2010 and had a great experience can't wait to do it again in a couple years.

Couple of tips:

absorb everything you can from Jimmy and your Instructors. Even the smallest little detail they tell you could get you out of a mess later down the road.

Remember its a 5 week job interview. Most umpires in the minors lose there jobs for off the field activities so don't do anything stupid in the near surrounding area because that stuff has a way of finding its way back to school.

Have fun, umpiring is fun. If your going for a job have fun and remember your going to make mistakes, lost's of them, don't ever show any emotion that you screwed up just keeping umpiring. once you can do that school will be the most fun you ever had.

Be mold-able. They are going to teach you the bear bones, "robot" umpire mechanics. Do what they ask and do the best you can. PBUC isnt looking for style points just yet.

Have a great time I hope you the best of luck and if you don't make it to PBUC there are tons of other umpiring jobs out there. Have fun give it your all and remember; Pause, Read, React

[Stan W.]

Congratulations on deciding to go to Pro School. We will be here pulling for you to become an Honor grad and go off to PBUC!

Regardless of the outcome, I know you will come home a better umpire.....I am always excited when a U/E member decides to go to pro school as there are many here that due to job/family/age/financial concerns will never get to go....(and I am one of them) . You can come back and add to the experience level and professionalism of this site in so many ways.......

Welcome back to the site.....

[spiritump]

Best of luck have fun

[mazzamouth]

Can I ask why you picked Evans over Harry's? is this Nate Warren BTW? and I went to Harry's and have many buddies went went to Evans... I think I can tell you which is better.

[Mr Umpire]

I haven't been but I have seen some tips. Here they are from a former Evans grad and instructor.

If you have a suit, or sport coat and dress pants, get it out and ready for the trip, as it is the proper dress for the banquet. Wear it on the plane on your way down. It will save it from getting wrinkled in your luggage and may make a good first impression on the instructors when they pick you up at the airport. YES, those are instructors that pick you up from the airport. They won't identify themselves as instructors, cuz your evaluation as a person has already begun. There have been guys that have shot themselves in the foot before they even got to the hotel to check in. I speak from experience.

Expect a phone call at the airport to try and locate you. Have your phone on and handy. It is chaos on arrival day for the apprentice instructors as they scramble to get everyone picked up, so be patient! There are a ton of guys arriving and only 2 or 3 shuttles running to try and get everyone.

Be polite at the hotel. Again, those guys helping with the check in process are instructors. Don’t make a bad name for yourself. Be patient with this process, too. DON'T complain about your roommate. You share a room with your partner in A ball, and you don't get to pick him. Roommate quarrels will be a part of your evaluation if you have problems.

After you get settled, make friends with someone that has a car and go to Wal-Mart (this is also necessary to get yourself to class each day.) To get to the Wal-Mart, go out of the hotel to the right and keep going. It’s 4 or 5 miles down on the left. Get shoe cleaning stuff and some cheap towels or rags. If you use the hotel towels to clean your shoes they will charge you. Jimmy usually gives out some red rags for shoe cleaning, but they shed and leave red fuzz on your shoes and on the floor in your room. Get some of your own. Get a few gallons of drinking water, cuz the Florida water is not good.

Take note of stuff around you on your trip. Just past the Wal-Mart there is a laundry place on the left (near the Sonic) that will do your laundry for you or you can do it yourself. You’ll pass a Hess station that is good in the morning or after class for random stuff you may need. Also, if you don't have Firehouse Subs where you live, make a point to visit it while you're down there. They’re grrrrrrrreat. It’s located down near the Wal-Mart. (If you're feeling adventurous when it’s laundry time, there is another laundry place if you go out of the hotel to the left a few miles. It's behind the Walgreens. That place is my favorite cuz they have a huge talking parrot that lives inside.)

As for on the field stuff...do your best not to get down on yourself. Take everything the training has to offer in stride and use all of it to better yourself as an umpire. The instructors do not discriminate between those that are competing for a job and those that are just there to get better. The training is the same for everyone. They will get on you, and they will try to expose your weaknesses on the field and use them against you. It is very easy to get discouraged, but, it is much better to have your weaknesses exposed during the training than to have it happen out in the real world.

Everything that happens is done to make you a better umpire. Do not be afraid to make mistakes in the first few weeks. It is 100% true when Jim says that the discussion about who's going to PBUC doesn't start til the 4th week. It’s ok to screw things up. It’s expected and encouraged, as long as you learn from it. You will hear many times that guys are making day 2 mistakes on day 5 or something along those lines. Make day 2 mistakes on day 2, learn from them, then don't make them again.

Ask questions if you need to, but don't jump ahead of the training. Jim covers EVERYTHING and he has an order in which he does it. Most likely your question will be answered before you need to ask it, but it may get answered a couple of days down the road. Write your questions down and then ask them later if he doesn't answer it when you get to that section of the training.

Work on "proper use of eyes" starting right now. Take a balled up pair of socks, lie on your back, throw it up in the air and catch it. Track it the whole way up and down only moving your eyes. If you go out for a ride in the car with someone else driving, track stuff with your eyes and keep your head still. Track passing cars, passing signs, anything. Try to train your eyes to move independently from your head. Continue the sock training at night in the hotel. He won't start you on tracking until late in week 2 or early week 3, but you'll be way ahead of the game if you start exercising your eyes now.

Keep you uniform neat. Press your pants in your room once a week or more. Clean your shoes. Shave. If you don't have a pair of real umpire pants, buy a pair now. Have them shipped to the school in you need to. You only really need one if you go on Sunday and wash them. You just shelled out 3 grand, another 50 bucks isn't going to break the bank, and you should look the part. While we're on that subject, get a real belt, too, if you don't alreay have one. Wear black socks, black shoes, and wear a navy blue undershirt if you are an undershirt type of person.

Help your group out as much as you can. After a while it will start to become obvious to you who the likely front runners for jobs are. If you have a likely candidate in your cage group, do whatever you can to help him without badgering him in the process.

Learn from everything. Watching the drills can be even more beneficial than doing them. Use the time waiting in line for your turn to see what other guys do right and wrong. By the time your turn comes, you will have seen 50 reps of the same thing. Ask the apprentice instructors questions while you are waiting in line, that's what they are there for. Do not, however, corner them and try to trick them with strange situations. They WILL talk about it with senior staff and it will come back to haunt you.

STRETCH! Stretch in the morning, at lunch, when you get home, and before going to bed. Sitting in the classroom will tighten your muscles up without you even realizing it. There is time built in for stretching before beginning the outdoor activities, but extra will benefit you as the weeks wear on.

Buy stuff from the store in the classroom! The apprentice instructors run that store and the profits from it make up about half of their pay. They really are “apprentices†and are only paid about 800 bucks for the month. They do all of the grunt work. Help them out by buying their stuff, and spread the word to other students!

Bring a cheap VCR if you have one, or split the cost of a cheapo from Wal-Mart with your roommate. There is a video review room (which you should make use of cuz it's staffed with instructors to answer questions and give advice) but it's only open a couple of hours each night. It’s great to be able to watch your video whenever you want, and you can have your whole cage group come over and watch them together.

Do not expect much, if any, positive reinforcement. "Not bad" means you're probably doing a good job. Jimmy’s philosophy is tough love. The instructors are not there to coddle you. Also, if they tell a guy "good job" a bunch of times and he ends up not going to PBUC, that may result in issues. You won't hear them say good job very often, though it does slip out every now and then.

Learn the instructors' names. They don't wear name tags. After a couple of days their pictures will be posted in the back of the classroom. You won't be quizzed on it, but you should study it a couple of minutes each day. Don’t call them sir, or Mr. _____, or any nickname you may hear them calling each other. Use their first name.

Do not ask questions during breaks. Breaks are breaks and the instructors need them! The apprentices have to set up their snack bar and the older guys have to use the bathroom, get a drink, or plan the next activity. They are only 10 or 15 minutes long and they need every minute of it.

For those of you that have heard the instruction compared to basic training...there are some similarities, but there really isn't any comparison. The mechanics and positioning are really the only things that are totally broken down to be cookie cutter. It’s the easiest way to evaluate guys…make everyone look the same and then evaluate performance instead of style. It works at school and it's what PBUC wants the first couple of years. There will be time near the end of the 5 weeks where you will work a little bit on style.

If you go out at night, do not get in trouble. Everybody in the area knows who you are. The school goes on every year and there is an influx of guys that have "the look." People in the area know who you are and where you're from and if crap happens it will get back to Jimmy.

If you go into a bar and see instructors, leave. If you go to a specific destination (Howl at the Moon, Cowboys, Church St., etc) and there are instructors, stay and have fun, but stay away from them. Don’t buy them drinks, don't go hang out with them. If you must pass them, a simple hello will suffice.

Don’t hang out in the hotel bar if you want a job. Do hang out in the hotel bar if you want to hear war stories from Jimmy and you are not looking for a job.

[NCAAump2]

Would also like opinions on both schools. Why one or the other? Benefits of both?

[kcfan102]

Awesome, Nate.

As a 2011 graduate from Jimmy's school, I can say you are making a great decision. All of the tips up there are great, just remember to have a little bit of fun.

Any specific questions, let me know.

[Nate]

Can I ask why you picked Evans over Harry's? is this Nate Warren BTW? and I went to Harry's and have many buddies went went to Evans... I think I can tell you which is better.

My goal is to take the college exam which is 80 percent rules and 20 percent mechanics up here in Massachusetts. I have two buddies who attended Wendelstedt and found that the school is more mechanics oriented while Jim focuses on the rules. Myself I'm a rules guy and I've personally found myself being strong with on field mechanics.. Plus I have talked with Jim Evan's multiple times within the past couple years. The only response I seem to get from Wendelstedt is when Hunter has a day off. So those are the reasons why I picked Evans honestly.

Nate

[mazzamouth]

Can I ask why you picked Evans over Harry's? is this Nate Warren BTW? and I went to Harry's and have many buddies went went to Evans... I think I can tell you which is better.

My goal is to take the college exam which is 80 percent rules and 20 percent mechanics up here in Massachusetts. I have two buddies who attended Wendelstedt and found that the school is more mechanics oriented while Jim focuses on the rules. Myself I'm a rules guy and I've personally found myself being strong with on field mechanics.. Plus I have talked with Jim Evan's multiple times within the past couple years. The only response I seem to get from Wendelstedt is when Hunter has a day off. So those are the reasons why I picked Evans honestly.

Nate

Ok I got it... but what makes a umpire look better Knowledge of the rules? Or Mechanics... i will let you decide.. also about Hunter, try to remember he is a MLB umpire and is busy from early Mar til Oct... Evans is retired and does nothing but answer phones....

I can tell you that Harry's Chief Instructor might be on of the finest rules guys around, they break down every rule and how it is applied. i have been to one of Evans 5 days clinics.. I and Love how he teaches... But Harry's is a much better school...

good luck you will still learn..

But I can tell you at PBUC we still had Evans guys asking Harry's guys about rules...LOL If you think about the amount of time the Evans guys spend in the classroom learning rules and taking test, rather than spending time on the field working on how to Umpire..

Sorry if it sounds mean, but I'm sticking up for Harry's..LOL

[UmpTTS43]

Can I ask why you picked Evans over Harry's? is this Nate Warren BTW? and I went to Harry's and have many buddies went went to Evans... I think I can tell you which is better.

My goal is to take the college exam which is 80 percent rules and 20 percent mechanics up here in Massachusetts. I have two buddies who attended Wendelstedt and found that the school is more mechanics oriented while Jim focuses on the rules. Myself I'm a rules guy and I've personally found myself being strong with on field mechanics.. Plus I have talked with Jim Evan's multiple times within the past couple years. The only response I seem to get from Wendelstedt is when Hunter has a day off. So those are the reasons why I picked Evans honestly.

Nate

Ok I got it... but what makes a umpire look better Knowledge of the rules? Or Mechanics... i will let you decide.. also about Hunter, try to remember he is a MLB umpire and is busy from early Mar til Oct... Evans is retired and does nothing but answer phones....

I can tell you that Harry's Chief Instructor might be on of the finest rules guys around, they break down every rule and how it is applied. i have been to one of Evans 5 days clinics.. I and Love how he teaches... But Harry's is a much better school...

good luck you will still learn..

But I can tell you at PBUC we still had Evans guys asking Harry's guys about rules...LOL If you think about the amount of time the Evans guys spend in the classroom learning rules and taking test, rather than spending time on the field working on how to Umpire..

Sorry if it sounds mean, but I'm sticking up for Harry's..LOL

You cannot compare a 5 day clinic to a school.

Attend both schools then you can compare.

I work with and know various umpires that have attended both. Their opinions are nearly a concensus. Evans is the clear choice.

From my personal experience, great choice going with Evans.

[mazzamouth]

Can I ask why you picked Evans over Harry's? is this Nate Warren BTW? and I went to Harry's and have many buddies went went to Evans... I think I can tell you which is better.

My goal is to take the college exam which is 80 percent rules and 20 percent mechanics up here in Massachusetts. I have two buddies who attended Wendelstedt and found that the school is more mechanics oriented while Jim focuses on the rules. Myself I'm a rules guy and I've personally found myself being strong with on field mechanics.. Plus I have talked with Jim Evan's multiple times within the past couple years. The only response I seem to get from Wendelstedt is when Hunter has a day off. So those are the reasons why I picked Evans honestly.

Nate

Ok I got it... but what makes a umpire look better Knowledge of the rules? Or Mechanics... i will let you decide.. also about Hunter, try to remember he is a MLB umpire and is busy from early Mar til Oct... Evans is retired and does nothing but answer phones....

I can tell you that Harry's Chief Instructor might be on of the finest rules guys around, they break down every rule and how it is applied. i have been to one of Evans 5 days clinics.. I and Love how he teaches... But Harry's is a much better school...

good luck you will still learn..

But I can tell you at PBUC we still had Evans guys asking Harry's guys about rules...LOL If you think about the amount of time the Evans guys spend in the classroom learning rules and taking test, rather than spending time on the field working on how to Umpire..

Sorry if it sounds mean, but I'm sticking up for Harry's..LOL

You cannot compare a 5 day clinic to a school.

Attend both schools then you can compare.

I work with and know various umpires that have attended both. Their opinions are nearly a concensus. Evans is the clear choice.

From my personal experience, great choice going with Evans.

good point.. BTW how many umpires are in the big leagues that are from Evans?

1st good choice on going to one of the 3 schools.. but I will remain loyal and say Harry's is still the best choice to go if you want to learn how to UMPIRE not learn the rules..And one of my really good friends went to Evans in 10 and Harry's in 11' I can tell you which he thought was better.

[Umpire in Chief]

I obviously have a business relationship with the Wendelstedt School and will try to state this as objectively as possible.

Here's a segment from my interview with Hunter Wendelstedt

Warren: Tell us some of the differences between the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School and the other major school?

Hunter: There are several differences that I think are substantial. Our staff is comprised of both umpires from every level of the Minor Leagues and the Major Leagues. I am proud to announce that all of our AAA umpires were sent to the Arizona Fall League and all seven have also received full schedules for this year’s Major League Spring Training. Though we have many Major League umpires on staff, our Minor League staff is the cream of the crop. These are going to be the guys that get the next Big League jobs. I credit this to my dad’s ability to recognize umpiring talent. He still makes the decisions as who to newly hire on our staff each year.

Consistently, these umpires have gone on to become Major League umpires. Currently, we have 12 full time Major League umpires on staff. Though it is important to have a competent Minor League staff to keep our school abreast of the new things coming out of there, there is nothing that can replace the experience of our Major League instructors. These aren’t guys that don’t deal with only four-man mechanics. Remember, they teach the Two-Man System every year. They know what they’re doing and the system that they teach is one that was designed by my dad. No other program in history can boast the extensive staff that we have. Our nearest competitor’s staff is mainly composed of first and second year umpires, who, though may be good umpires, do not have the experience to make them as good of instructors.

Another difference is our teaching methods. Though we have controlled situations (with an instructor holding the bat), daily drills, continual cage work, and camp games, we are the only school that uses live games played by college and high school teams in its curriculum. This is important, not only because it offers the students live game experience but because it is also the only thing that is used at the PBUC placement camp to determine starting leagues and levels of entry umpires. Our students are better prepared for this evaluation than a school that only offers simulated situations. Finally, the results speak for them self. Our school has produced more professional umpires and more Major League umpires, than all other programs in history combined. Since the inception of our newest competitor’s first umpire to reach the Major Leagues, our numbers more than double that of theirs. With well over one hundred Major League umpires produced, our nearest competitor doesn’t even come close with their less than a handful.

Though statistics can often be skewed, these are hard to move. In fact, they claim that their senior instructor has trained or supervised a large number of the current Major League staff. What they fail to say is that the vast majority of the MLB umpires trained by him were while he was an apprentice instructor with our school.

You need to do your your homework and speak to someone about each of the schools and get different opinions. Find out which works best for you and the way you learn.

In all honesty based on what I know I would choose Wendelstedt, I feel that from what people have told me and what I know and how I learn. I feel Wendelstedt would be the best school for me.