One man crew

[TStokes97]

I found out i will be doing a game alone this week, happy to do it just a bit lost its 15U which around here is full on mlb rules and the kids can hit/play so its a "real" game, I currently debating 3 ways to handle the game here they are below, which should i do? 1) Umpire from behind homeplate alone 2) umpire alone from behind the mound 3) ask for a parent volunteer to cover some infield for me. Please help!?

[millerforrest]

Nothing wrong with umpiring behind the mound. The MLB Rule book says that the one umpire may take any position on the field but its usually (being the operative word) behind the plate.

Behind the mound gives you a great look at balls and strikes. You are only a few steps in any direction to make a call at any base & the plate. The only disadvantage is fair/foul down the lines. You do what you feel is most comfortable for you.

[MadMax]

@grayhawk has a FWD Locker Room. Bravo, brother.

 

@Sayhey , I really want to know whereabouts you work, because it sounds like the holy land of baseball. In eight years of umpiring here in Wisconsin, I have only seen _one_ dressing room for umpires, and that was at Wirth Park, where the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League play, and the room in question consists of a tiny latrine, a utility shower (shared by the groundskeeper to fill his mop buckets in), four beaten lockers (probably "repurposed" from one of the team locker rooms), and some chairs. One door leads to field, the other double-door leads to the groundskeeper rooms.

 

Otherwise, I have spent time in ad-hoc, makeshift "umpire rooms" at these large, tournament-hosting field megaplexes, usually a space within the center hub building that doubles as a concession stand and groundskeeper equipment storage building. It's a _treat_ changing your gear or taking a break between games with over a dozen other umpires while sitting on or navigating around bags of line chalk, grass seed, or drying compound. And it's a real thrill when fans, ballplayers, coaches, etc. can peer in and see you when they visit the concession counter, or walk past the mini-garage door that is cranked open because that's the only source of airflow in that concrete shelter, and you're sitting in there, a sweaty mess, and describing, in "highly illustrative euphemisms" the game you just finished and how such-and-such team are a bunch of...

 

You know what? I'll just walk back to my car, turn on the radio or the stereo, and change "in peace".

 

Weekday/weeknight baseball games drop the chances of getting a room / shelter space to change to fractional numbers. No, it's a mobile life for us, as sports officials. 

[noumpere]

Nothing wrong with umpiring behind the mound. The MLB Rule book says that the one umpire may take any position on the field but its usually (being the operative word) behind the plate.

And it's not changed in MLB because it would never happen and they just don't care about cleaning up thise types of errors.

 

If the choice is behind the mound or cancel the game -- sure, go behind the mound.  But, if the choice is behind the mound or behind the plate, take the plate.

[Sayhey]

Mad Max, I hope you are well and enjoying college baseball. I hope to go some day. I rolled into Omaha 1 hour late for last years final game

The Rogue Valley in south west Oregon is where I umpire and some games in Northern Cal.

We are blessed with thousands of people in our local baseball community that love baseball

Personaly, I am a baseball fanatic. I went to Cooperstown, Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and Mets ballpark last year. We are Giants fans in south Oregon and the recent World championships fueled the fire for the love of the game. The Giants brought the trophy up in 2010 and 2012. We have a junior Giants team.

Our local high school team won the big school state championship Saturday. We frequently beat Portland teams that have a population base 8 times our population.

Another local team lost their state championship game. The teams get to play at a San Francisco Giant single A stadium at the state Capitol in Salem. We are kind of a baseball crazy area our American Legion team plays in the World Series often.

Nothing like the Ragun Cajuns in Louisiana, but we do have a passion. Where I umpire tonight has a dressing room dedicated for umpires

Lockers, chairs, mirrors, shower, and sink.

Door that locks. Bathroom. Free burger and coke after game. It's nice when there is a tournament

We just consider it normal. I have assigned in the past and I just made it clear that the umpires need to be taken care of. It was not a hard sell.

They like taking care of umpires. Thank you after the game. Birthday cake after one game.

We get respect by working hard. Our high school assosiation is top heavy with college umpires which helps bring up our level of dignity and pride

We challenge each other to work hard on every pitch and look sharp on the field. It has just been a norm here for decades that umpires are reared well. The other side of the coin is that the expectations are high. You will be praised for hard work and sloppy work will be noted .

Coaches know proper positioning.

It fires you up to work hard when you bust down to third base on a base hit from home in a 3-man crew and the visiting head coach, who is coaching third, says, "nice position blue".

We get respect by respecting the game and our partners on the field. That respect gets us dressing rooms. Hope it gets better for you

[Sayhey]

Umpires are treated well. Not so sure about reared well. Lol. It's not all rainbows and cotton candy. Last month I had a father tell me I needed to up my medication. Pretty funny line. I told him to go somewhere where I could not see him or hear him. We did have a new athletic director at a particular school that closed the umpire dressing room. The first two umpires that showed up and found the door locked told the head coach that if there was no dressing room he had no umpires for the game. The door was unlocked in 5 minutes and remains available. These two umpires were backed up by the head coach and our assignor. It seems short sighted to me to treat umpires poorly. They are a key element to a successful program.

Umpires are treated well. Not so sure about reared well. Lol. It's not all rainbows and cotton candy. Last month I had a father tell me I needed to up my medication. Pretty funny line. I told him to go somewhere where I could not see him or hear him. We did have a new athletic director at a particular school that closed the umpire dressing room. The first two umpires that showed up and found the door locked told the head coach that if there was no dressing room he had no umpires for the game. The door was unlocked in 5 minutes and remains available. These two umpires were backed up by the head coach and our assignor. It seems short sighted to me to treat umpires poorly. They are a key element to a successful program.

Umpires are treated well. Not so sure about reared well. Lol. It's not all rainbows and cotton candy. Last month I had a father tell me I needed to up my medication. Pretty funny line. I told him to go somewhere where I could not see him or hear him. We did have a new athletic director at a particular school that closed the umpire dressing room. The first two umpires that showed up and found the door locked told the head coach that if there was no dressing room he had no umpires for the game. The door was unlocked in 5 minutes and remains available. These two umpires were backed up by the head coach and our assignor. It seems short sighted to me to treat umpires poorly. They are a key element to a successful program.

[grayhawk]

You can say that again...and again...

[Sayhey]

Sorry for the duplication of message. Maybe I pressed post twice.

[Sayhey]

Apple I phone is not the best for posting.

It may sound like we are special. Not my intent to sound special. I will work my ass off on every pitch tonight and I have spent thousands of dollars at clinics(camps), but that is not special either. We are lucky here. Luck of the draw where I live. I do hope that conditions get better for everyone. Everyone deserves a private and comfortable place to dress, especially during a double header or tournament. I wish everyone a great summer of calling ball and I hope we all move up and get better games and better conditions

[FleasOf1000Camels]

I did a tournament several weeks ago at a nice 10 field multiplex that REALLY did it right

 

Separate roped off parking area for umpires and soccer officials. (there was also a large soccer tournament going on at the park)

A 30' x 50' air conditioned tent (like you'd see at a country club wedding reception) 

Coolers of water, and gatorade, 

Fresh bananas, grapes, oranges and watermelon.

Some fan-freakin-tastic pulled pork sandwiches.

Plus (are you ready for this) BEER (only after you last game).

All compliments of a corporate sponsor.

 

They even had a uniformed (off-duty) deputy sheriff at the tent door.

 

I'll go back there ANY time. 

[SJA]

Wait a minute . . . you really had heat stroke, and then woke up? . . . come-on now . . . lets get back to the real Ump World . . .

 

;-)

[TStokes97]

I did a tournament several weeks ago at a nice 10 field multiplex that REALLY did it right

Separate roped off parking area for umpires and soccer officials. (there was also a large soccer tournament going on at the park)

A 30' x 50' air conditioned tent (like you'd see at a country club wedding reception)

Coolers of water, and gatorade,

Fresh bananas, grapes, oranges and watermelon.

Some fan-freakin-tastic pulled pork sandwiches.

Plus (are you ready for this) BEER (only after you last game).

All compliments of a corporate sponsor.

They even had a uniformed (off-duty) deputy sheriff at the tent door.

I'll go back there ANY time.

thats not a tournament thats you getting drilled in the head taking a near death experience and visit to umpire Heaven

[Sayhey]

It's watermelon and a free beer after the game

Grapes and bananas. How hard is that to pull off ??

It should be the norm. If you start respecting yourself more maybe decent human beings will start to treat you better. I had a former Dodger catcher meet me in the parking lot tonight and ask me if we wanted to use the dressing room for umpires. He is giving back by coaching a young team. He cared so much about umpires that he was waiting for us to pull into the parking lot to greet us and see how he could make us comfortable. . . We said thank you and appreciated the respect. A volunteer parent met us at the dressing room door with Gatorade after the game. She thanked us for working the game as she handed us our drinks. She had a big smile. She was happy to be there. We see value in the game because it builds character and mental health. It's more than baseball. We had a student murdered on campus today in Oregon. Maybe if this troubled youth, the shooter, had been on the ball club he would of felt like someone cared about him and life had value. Rage won out. Mental health warnings ignored. I digress, but my point is, value yourself enough to demand respect and maybe you will start to see dressing rooms and Gatorade and free beer after your last game.

It's time well spent. It brings health to a community. So, if we are going to put energy into this endeavor, why not do it right and part of doing it right is treating umpires with respect.

We returned the respect by showing up on time looking sharp. My partner said my plate shoes were polished so fine that they were hurting his eyes. We both had on new pro style shirts and patent leather belts. My partner just finished the state championship game at 1st base and had several close calls and went out several times on trouble balls We worked hard on every pitch and got to call a balk on a hidden ball trick. Not that we wanted to call a balk, but at least we cared enough to study the rule so that when it did happen we got the call right and most importantly, the pitcher learned a valuable lesson and it was a teaching moment. We respect the game. They may be young players or they may be college players playing summer ball

And Div. 1 in the spring but it's all baseball and I love the game enough to respect it and that means carrying yourself with dignity and pride as an umpire.

Shined shoes and crisp cap and a friendly and professional attitude. Maybe you are dressing in a parking lot because you do not earn respect, or, more likely, you deserve respect, but you are working for people that really do not care about you. Those people need to go elsewhere. . It should not be umpire Heaven because someone valued you enough to make sure you were hydrated and gave you some citrus and a cold one after the game. That should be normal. Quit allowing people to treat you like SH*#.

[BigUmpire]

Bet it was NOT a USSSA tournament

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TStokes97]

It's watermelon and a free beer after the game

Grapes and bananas. How hard is that to pull off ??

It should be the norm. If you start respecting yourself more maybe decent human beings will start to treat you better. I had a former Dodger catcher meet me in the parking lot tonight and ask me if we wanted to use the dressing room for umpires. He is giving back by coaching a young team. He cared so much about umpires that he was waiting for us to pull into the parking lot to greet us and see how he could make us comfortable. . . We said thank you and appreciated the respect. A volunteer parent met us at the dressing room door with Gatorade after the game. She thanked us for working the game as she handed us our drinks. She had a big smile. She was happy to be there. We see value in the game because it builds character and mental health. It's more than baseball. We had a student murdered on campus today in Oregon. Maybe if this troubled youth, the shooter, had been on the ball club he would of felt like someone cared about him and life had value. Rage won out. Mental health warnings ignored. I digress, but my point is, value yourself enough to demand respect and maybe you will start to see dressing rooms and Gatorade and free beer after your last game.

It's time well spent. It brings health to a community. So, if we are going to put energy into this endeavor, why not do it right and part of doing it right is treating umpires with respect.

We returned the respect by showing up on time looking sharp. My partner said my plate shoes were polished so fine that they were hurting his eyes. We both had on new pro style shirts and patent leather belts. My partner just finished the state championship game at 1st base and had several close calls and went out several times on trouble balls We worked hard on every pitch and got to call a balk on a hidden ball trick. Not that we wanted to call a balk, but at least we cared enough to study the rule so that when it did happen we got the call right and most importantly, the pitcher learned a valuable lesson and it was a teaching moment. We respect the game. They may be young players or they may be college players playing summer ball

And Div. 1 in the spring but it's all baseball and I love the game enough to respect it and that means carrying yourself with dignity and pride as an umpire.

Shined shoes and crisp cap and a friendly and professional attitude. Maybe you are dressing in a parking lot because you do not earn respect, or, more likely, you deserve respect, but you are working for people that really do not care about you. Those people need to go elsewhere. . It should not be umpire Heaven because someone valued you enough to make sure you were hydrated and gave you some citrus and a cold one after the game. That should be normal. Quit allowing people to treat you like SH*#.

After a few years you get used to being treated like SH*# its normal now to me