NEW BOOK!! Experiences Wanted

[Brandon7]

Hi All!! 

My name is Brandon Walker. I am a student at BYU-Idaho, and I umpire baseball here in Idaho, and I previously umped in Colorado. I am in the process of writing my first book "YER OUTTA HERE!: Life Lessons from Behind the Plate". I am writing about different aspects of umpiring, and how it has impacted my life outside the diamond. The book will have 13 chapters. I would love to hear experiences from you, as well as how these umpiring experiences have helped shape your lives outside of baseball. These experiences can be either GOOD OR BAD. Both are welcomed. If you respond to this, please include your name, because I may contact you further for more information. I will let you know as I continue to write and as I get closer to publishing this book. I appreciate all of you and the hard work which we do. Someone's gotta do it, even if it's an often thankless job. 

The 13 topics are: 

1) Authority

2) Take Your Time
3) Being in Position

4) Explaining the Call

5) Sometimes, You Don't Know

6) Talking it Over

7) You Can't Please Everyone

8) Ejections

9) Forgetting the Last Call

10) Always Learning

11) Hard Calls

12) Getting Hit

13) Sometimes, You're Wrong. 

 

Thank you so much to the umpiring community. 

 

Brandon Walker

[Biscuit]

BYUi... The only school worse than BYU. Go Utes! 

[Lou B]

12) Getting Hit

Many many years ago doing the plate in a LL game.  The batter swings and misses and lets go of the bat on his backswing.  Bang, the lights go out.  I wake up as I'm being loaded into the ambulance.  Off to the hospital for an examination and some concussion tests.

The wife gets called and shows up at the hospital about 15 minutes later all worried.  I tell her I feel fine except for the lump on the side of my head!   After about 2 hours the Doctor says everything checked out OK and the wife and I head for the Exit.  Get to the Waiting Room and there are about 75 people there clapping and cheering as I walk out.  Players from both teams, parents, fans, my umpiring partner, ...

Priceless.

[The Short Umpire]

4 hours ago, Biscuit said:

BYUi... The only school worse than BYU. Go Utes! 

Pretty much go anybody playing BYU!

 

Good luck with your book though! Sounds like a great goal! 

[Brandon7]

Lou, 

 

This is EXACTLY the type of experiences I'm looking for. Thank you for the help and a pretty great story.

 

Once, I was on a 7u game by myself in Colorado, and I see one of the best pitches I have EVER seen out of this age group come right down the pipe. Belt high, just beautiful. Catcher inexplicably moves out of the way, and the ball hits me straight in the nads. Everyone in the stands starts laughing as I go to one knee. Gahlee, that was not one of my finest moments!

For those out there, I would love more experiences on the topics listed above. Thank you.

[BLarson]

^^^^  Same thing happened to me (to the nads)....except when I collected myself I said in a high falsetto voice "Strike".  

Everyone at the field cracked up laughing.

[Mad Mike]

Base umpire (BU) I am working with takes a steal into second base. BU calls the guys safe. The defensive coach comes out to argue about the play wanting an out. After some back and forth, BU has had it with the coach and says, "Coach, his di** was on the bag when he was tagged." The coach, who was from Madison High School in your neck of the woods, stops arguing and is so stunned by the comment doesn't know what to say. After standing there for 30 seconds, he turns around and marches back to the dugout without another word said.

To protect the innocent, this issue happened in the mid 90s. Nobody in the their PC mind would say that anymore and/or get away with it......

[yawetag]

@Brandon7, you might have luck perusing old topics on the forum. A good place to start would be the War Stories area. It's probably obvious, but getting the poster's permission before adding it to your book is a great gesture.

[Brandon7]

@yawetag Thank you for the tip. I'll take a gander over there. I love the diversity of this crowd, with all their experiences. Thanks again. 

[jjb]

Adult championship game: LA vs Detroit. I’m BU. Close play at 1^st, I bang it safe. SS starts on me: ”Blue, we got him by a half step” I ignore. Same SS “Oh, Blue, he was out by a full step” I ignore. Same SS: “Oh Blue that wasn’t even close”. I had enough: ” “Y’know, the more you talk, the stupider you sound”. His own Team broke out into laughter and yelled “You got him, Blue”. Had to chuckle…

[Brandon7]

Please keep the experiences coming! I am appreciative to those who have already responded. The landscape of umpiring is a wealth of stories. Thank you for the stories and all you do. 

[The Man in Blue]

Not a story, but some thoughts on getting hit ... 

Umpiring baseball/softball is one of the most expensive sports to get started in as an official.  That is mainly because of your plate gear.  You can get into it cheap, but a good estimate is around $250 - $300 in plastic, foam, and buckles.  If you spend that much money on something to protect you, let it protect you.  Stand square and let the gear do its job.  Start twisting, dancing, and standing up and you start exposing areas not covered by protective gear.  That is when you will get hurt.  

It’s going to happen.  You are going to get hit.  Accept that and move to the next step ... One of the toughest things to learn is to let it happen.  Like a professional wrestler learns to take “a bump”, a good umpire will learn how to get hit.  We learn many techniques on positioning and posturing to help make us smaller targets, but the hardest thing to learn is training your mind and body to stay put.  If you start practicing the 5 Ds back there (dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge) you are going to make it worse.  

The hit to the mask is one of the hardest to allow.  Several times a season I will have an ear “pop” as the air pressure changes from the ball going by that close and that fast.  I don’t hear the ball go by; I feel it go by.  Those are close calls that don’t hit me, but If I started trying to turn my head and move, I am turning my mask away from the approaching ball and exposing the unprotected side of my head and my neck.  Stay facing-forward and let your mask (and the rest of your gear) do its job.

[Lou B]

On 9/26/2019 at 2:02 PM, Brandon7 said:

Once, I was on a 7u game by myself in Colorado, and I see one of the best pitches I have EVER seen out of this age group come right down the pipe. Belt high, just beautiful. Catcher inexplicably moves out of the way, and the ball hits me straight in the nads. Everyone in the stands starts laughing as I go to one knee. Gahlee, that was not one of my finest moments!

That's what you get for umpiring a 7U game! 

[yawetag]

On 9/27/2019 at 4:52 PM, The Man in Blue said:

If you start practicing the 5 Ds back there (dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge) you are going to make it worse.

I just have one D in my plate work - along with an S, F, and H.

[The Man in Blue]

2 hours ago, yawetag said:

I just have one D in my plate work - along with an S, F, and H.

Alright ... I don’t get it.  

[The Short Umpire]

Use those letters as a starting point... then add 3 more letters. 

[Brandon7]

Along with your umpiring experiences for my book, can those who reply also put how experiences from the topics above have translated into your day-to-day? This is the basis for my book. I really appreciate you, the umpiring community for your experiences and your willingness to help make others better. Thank you again.

[The Man in Blue]

19 hours ago, The Short Umpire said:

Use those letters as a starting point... then add 3 more letters. 

Ooohhhhhhh ....  

[grayhawk]

I would be happy to sell you all of my experiences, which you may pass off as your own...

[Aging_Arbiter]

On ‎9‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 4:52 PM, The Man in Blue said:

 If you start practicing the 5 Ds back there (dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge) you are going to make it worse.

[Brandon7]

Hey all. I have a specific request from you. Do any of you have any pre-game rituals? For me, I pray for guidance before every game. But I know everyone is different. I'd love to hear your rituals for the prologue of my book. 

Thank you!

Brandon Walker

[The Man in Blue]

Don’t step on the chalk lines.

As BU, I always give my PU a “courtesy sweep” of home plate after the pre-game conference.

Now that you have me thinking, I believe I almost always enter on the third base side.

[Aging_Arbiter]

This one time..........at band Ump camp........

[yawetag]

39 minutes ago, Aging_Arbiter said:

This one time..........at band Ump camp........

Have you ever been to an umpire camp?

[The Man in Blue]

You should see how he uses his indicator ...