Officially starting my little league umpire journey tomorrow

[orangebird]

I'm looking at two orgs in my county and the first training for one of them will be tomorrow! Figure I'll use this thread to keep folks in the loop and share anything I find surprising/interesting/etc going through this process for the first time. Also if anyone has any tips/encouragement/etc for a newbie I'm all ears! 

[The Man in Blue]

As one of my old assignors used to tell us . . . 

"Try to get a few right, even if it is an accident."

 

😉

[The Man in Blue]

Seriously though:

Observe everything.  For example, between innings when you are on the bases, watch how the fielders move and throw, particularly watch how the first baseman takes the throws.  Does he tend to leave the base?  Is he doing that early?  Does he tend to fall back (possibly in the runner's path)?  How would you have moved to protect you angle if he did *that* in the game?  Observe the dog or the little kid who keeps trying to run onto the field . . . 

Then ask "Why is that?" of everything!  Why did that fielder do that?  Why did the coach say it that way?  Why did my partner make that signal?  Why does it smell like hot dogs when there is no concession stand?  Why does that mom always dress that way and sit in the front row?  OK . . . maybe not everything.

Third, learn how to read and use the rulebook; do not assume everything you are told is correct.

[SeeingEyeDog]

As a new umpire, you're going to be receiving A LOT of feedback from the other umpires in your association. Umpires are people and you're going to receive feedback in a variety of different tones and vibes because every one is an individual. There are the facts of what you are or are not doing...and there is the tone that's being delivered to you. It's easy to get fixated on the tone and miss the message. You might have a gruff and rough partner and you might have a New Age spiritualist partner. Don't be a, "Yeah, but..." guy. Simply LISTEN to what you are being told about your work and make a note of what you are being told (writing feedback down is extremely helpful...). If you start to hear the same kinds of feedback about the same things...this is perfectly normal. We all develop at different paces and in different directions. Repeated feedback related to the same concerns should be a flag to you that this is something you should be addressing. Does that mean if you only hear something once you should disregard it? No. Learning to accept and apply feedback is an important part of developing as an umpire. In closing, umpiring is very difficult. It takes a long time and a lot of games and situations to become even a low level somewhat competent umpire. Keep a copy of the rulebook on the back of your most used toilet at home. If at the end of the year your rulebook is still in one piece and all the pages are intact, you didn't spend enough time reading your rulebook that year.

~Dawg

[834k3r]

Like @The Man in Blue, first the the humor:

My LL UIC told me a saying I tell every partner after the plate meeting:  "Don't suck. And if you do, do it consistently."

 

And the serious bit:

When you're making calls--whether in the field or behind the plate--SLOW DOWN. You will feel like you're too slow, but in all likelihood you're still too fast. Watch the play/pitch, then play it over in your mind to make sure you know what you saw--not what you think you saw.

Take critiques well and have humility. I've worked with a couple of guys that no one wanted to work with because they would never take criticism.

Lastly, visit this site regularly and read as much as you can. When I was starting out, I learned a metric crap ton from reading about the experiences of the other practitioners of The Craft.

Oh, and lastly lastly:  don't ever mention the baseball equipment company with the Yellow W to @MadMax.

[ScottB00]

Not sure if you aware or not, but Maryland State Umpire Association(MD LL Umpires) are having their annual state clinic February 15th at Lansdowne High School in Baltimore. You can go the the msuaonline.org site and register if you are interested.

[grayhawk]

3 hours ago, ScottB00 said:

Not sure if you aware or not, but Maryland State Umpire Association(MD LL Umpires) are having their annual state clinic February 15th at Lansdowne High School in Baltimore. You can go the the msuaonline.org site and register if you are interested.

 

[The Man in Blue]

I am sure this has been said before, but seriously?  The MSU Association?!

[orangebird]

First training for the first org I'm considering went well, was just two hours of an ump talking and taking notes on it, nothing felt particularly hard to understand. However, the second org (which is just the parks department) is offering waaay more per game so it seems like we'll be committing to that one. 

[MadMax]

On 2/6/2025 at 8:28 AM, orangebird said:

was just two hours of an ump talking and taking notes on it

1 hour and 40 minutes too long. 

When are these associations going to figure it out? We (umpires at large) cannot continue to use arcane methods of recruitment, training, development, and retention. 

Baseball is a physical sport. It's best to get up, get on your feet, and be physical! Sure, there are important things that need to be conveyed with attention, but once past 20 minutes, the human mind's retention of that presented information really starts to wane. Get up, move around, change the context, change (or progress) the topic, and reset the 20 minutes. Of course, nothing bests the actual ballfield upon which to conduct this. Have we considered walk-arounds? If we have to hold it indoors, have we considered setting up stations within the gymnasium or auditorium? Have we considered having two or more people present information, and rotating between or amongst them? 

The "old ways" of doing things don't work, and haven't worked for years. Change 'em, fix 'em. 

[orangebird]

57 minutes ago, MadMax said:

1 hour and 40 minutes too long. 

When are these associations going to figure it out? We (umpires at large) cannot continue to use arcane methods of recruitment, training, development, and retention. 

Baseball is a physical sport. It's best to get up, get on your feet, and be physical! Sure, there are important things that need to be conveyed with attention, but once past 20 minutes, the human mind's retention of that presented information really starts to wane. Get up, move around, change the context, change (or progress) the topic, and reset the 20 minutes. Of course, nothing bests the actual ballfield upon which to conduct this. Have we considered walk-arounds? If we have to hold it indoors, have we considered setting up stations within the gymnasium or auditorium? Have we considered having two or more people present information, and rotating between or amongst them? 

The "old ways" of doing things don't work, and haven't worked for years. Change 'em, fix 'em. 

Yeah I didn't have any problems with how stuff was presented but as someone who graduated college pretty recently (I hope 2019 is still recent lol) I was thinking they should've at least had the material we covered also available online because my lectures did that pretty regularly. It looked like our trainer was mainly just reading stuff from a printed out Word doc where I think it'd be nice if anyone who signed in for the first session was given access to the Word doc just to make sure they didn't miss anything. 

[834k3r]

1 hour ago, orangebird said:

Yeah I didn't have any problems with how stuff was presented but as someone who graduated college pretty recently (I hope 2019 is still recent lol) I was thinking they should've at least had the material we covered also available online because my lectures did that pretty regularly. It looked like our trainer was mainly just reading stuff from a printed out Word doc where I think it'd be nice if anyone who signed in for the first session was given access to the Word doc just to make sure they didn't miss anything. 

Sorry your first experience was with someone that doesn't know how to prepare for a topic, or doesn't care to prepare. Reading from the presentation materials is certainly not a great presentation technique.

I encourage you to not worry about the Word doc--I guarantee there's nothing on it that you won't find in many, many other places on the web. In my original response, I failed to mention UmpireBible.com--it's an understated, archaic-feeling site, but the rules and comments there are perfectly apropos for LL.

[orangebird]

12 minutes ago, 834k3r said:

Sorry your first experience was with someone that doesn't know how to prepare for a topic, or doesn't care to prepare. Reading from the presentation materials is certainly not a great presentation technique.

I encourage you to not worry about the Word doc--I guarantee there's nothing on it that you won't find in many, many other places on the web. In my original response, I failed to mention UmpireBible.com--it's an understated, archaic-feeling site, but the rules and comments there are perfectly apropos for LL.

I mean he seemed prepared, felt pretty knowledgeable and wasn't just doing a boring monotone the whole time or anything like that, I wanna give the guy some credit here haha

But yeah it was just 2 hours of reading his notes and us jotting down the summary of his notes with about a 5-min break after the first hour 

[834k3r]

43 minutes ago, orangebird said:

I mean he seemed prepared, felt pretty knowledgeable and wasn't just doing a boring monotone the whole time or anything like that, I wanna give the guy some credit here haha

But yeah it was just 2 hours of reading his notes and us jotting down the summary of his notes with about a 5-min break after the first hour 

I don't mean prepared in the sense he didn't know his materials (since he's "senior enough" to be a trainer I certainly would hope he knew his stuff) but he wasn't prepared to lead a discussion or information session. Would've been great to use the Word doc as a point of departure for an Q&A session where an actual discussion took place, but everyone has their own technique, I suppose.

[orangebird]

So I'm potentially looking at a bit of a timing pickle and was hoping someone could tell me if this e-mail seems fine and if not, how you'd edit it.

The first org has already completed its first training and will have its test on Feb 24 and the on-field training on March 5...meanwhile the second org has done 0 training so far and hasn't even given me precise dates yet. I'm admittedly quite a bit frustrated by this and wanted to reach out to org #2's guy in charge of the training. 

So...this is my first draft.

Quote

Hi Mr. (Name),

I just wanted to check in to see when you’ll know the specific dates for umpiring training.

For full transparency, I’ve also been looking at (other org) for umpiring and their test is on the February 24th and the final on-field training if you pass the test is on March 5th. 

I’m certainly considering choosing the Parks Department over (other org), but it’d be much easier for me to make my decision if I’ve attended at least one training session with the Parks Department before completing my training with (other org).

Thanks,
(My name)

I'm trying to come off as professional and respectful, but also want to be clear that their competitor is way ahead of them and that I'd appreciate some details for their training process pretty soon. 

So yeah, if you think that email is fine then let me know and if you think it could use some editing to seem more polite/professional/respectful/etc please let me know. 

Thanks!

[The Man in Blue]

@orangebird . . . I think it sounds just fine.  Organizations need to know what the realities of the avocation, and last minute, expecting us to hop, is not the desirable state of things.

You are fortunate you have options.

[Richvee]

4 hours ago, orangebird said:

So I'm potentially looking at a bit of a timing pickle and was hoping someone could tell me if this e-mail seems fine and if not, how you'd edit it.

The first org has already completed its first training and will have its test on Feb 24 and the on-field training on March 5...meanwhile the second org has done 0 training so far and hasn't even given me precise dates yet. I'm admittedly quite a bit frustrated by this and wanted to reach out to org #2's guy in charge of the training. 

So...this is my first draft.

I'm trying to come off as professional and respectful, but also want to be clear that their competitor is way ahead of them and that I'd appreciate some details for their training process pretty soon. 

So yeah, if you think that email is fine then let me know and if you think it could use some editing to seem more polite/professional/respectful/etc please let me know. 

Thanks!

Can you take the training from both, and work for both groups? I know here, for high school, we have several assignors that assign in our area. We can work games for any of them, regardless of our state chapter affiliation. I know every area differs, but we are independent contractors. We don't work for the association or the assignor(s).

All my assignors know I work for others as well. If you remain responsible and professional. keep your schedules and availability up to date, it shouldn't be a problem. For example, my high school assignors know I work for multiple assignors so it's first come, first served for accepting high school games. They are also aware I work college, so if a college game comes up on a day I have a high school game scheduled, they know I'll give it back and take the college game (as long as it's ahead of time and not last minute) 

So bottom line..I'd be up front and tell both organizations you plan on working in both. Complete whatever training is necessary for both, and take games from both, being sure to be up front and block dates once you have a game. 

[orangebird]

36 minutes ago, Richvee said:

Can you take the training from both, and work for both groups? I know here, for high school, we have several assignors that assign in our area. We can work games for any of them, regardless of our state chapter affiliation. I know every area differs, but we are independent contractors. We don't work for the association or the assignor(s).

All my assignors know I work for others as well. If you remain responsible and professional. keep your schedules and availability up to date, it shouldn't be a problem. For example, my high school assignors know I work for multiple assignors so it's first come, first served for accepting high school games. They are also aware I work college, so if a college game comes up on a day I have a high school game scheduled, they know I'll give it back and take the college game (as long as it's ahead of time and not last minute) 

So bottom line..I'd be up front and tell both organizations you plan on working in both. Complete whatever training is necessary for both, and take games from both, being sure to be up front and block dates once you have a game. 

I definitely can, but at least starting out I think it'd be easier for me logistically if I was just committed to one. Feel like trying to schedule myself for two orgs at once might be a bit overwhelming for someone new to this and would just prefer to be fully committed to one org starting out. 

[orangebird]

Updates!

 

• Email to org #2 went fine, the first training for them overlaps with the test for org #1 but he understood the situation and seems fine with it, so that's good
• Second training for org #1 was yesterday, spent a lot of time going over the logistics of 2-man crew positioning. Where you start pre-pitch as the base umpire felt pretty obvious but I'll def need to review my notes for positioning once a ball is put in play for like a double into the gap or anything more elaborate than a grounder in the infield. 
• Also went over infield fly/dropped third strike which I think I knew already but was good to just make sure I knew all the details for them

[Richvee]

Read the rule book Even if you think you know the rule. Read it all the way through Sometimes there's things in a rule you may not have realized...exceptions, and so forth. 

[orangebird]

Obviously people have thought this over and I'm new to this but I'm kinda struggling with the thought process for how often you're in position C for two-man crews

For example, if there's a runner on third and two outs, it seems like it'd make more sense to be near first because it's much more likely for a grounder to go there for the force instead of someone throwing home for the tag, right?

[grayhawk]

47 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Obviously people have thought this over and I'm new to this but I'm kinda struggling with the thought process for how often you're in position C for two-man crews

For example, if there's a runner on third and two outs, it seems like it'd make more sense to be near first because it's much more likely for a grounder to go there for the force instead of someone throwing home for the tag, right?

I'm answering for working inside on games where leading off is allowed. You are in C because there could be a pickoff attempt at third, and calling that from B is sketchy at best. Yes, the most likely play is the putout attempt at first (not a force, but that's for another day), and while you start off in C, you should have plenty of time to move within the working area to gain distance for your call at first base.

[Velho]

57 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Obviously people have thought this over and I'm new to this but I'm kinda struggling with the thought process for how often you're in position C for two-man crews

For example, if there's a runner on third and two outs, it seems like it'd make more sense to be near first because it's much more likely for a grounder to go there for the force instead of someone throwing home for the tag, right?

And for small field with closed bases where you are outside, the argument can be made that the gain for the less frequent back pick of R3 makes up for the loss on the 1B BR play*.

Also, since you're outside, C has a lot of leeway. For example, with R3 only (especially one that isn't too active) it's common to see BU shading closer to 2B.

* And where would you go? B? Now you're in suboptimal for both. A? R3 is more valuable than BR and you've got nothing on a play over there. Bottom line: 2 man is a compromise.

[orangebird]

Yeah admittedly some of my hesitance is I haven't done any on-field training yet (gotta pass the test first lol) where I truly have no idea how quickly I could get from position C to near 1B for something like a 4-3 putout

[Velho]

5 minutes ago, orangebird said:

Yeah admittedly some of my hesitance is I haven't done any on-field training yet

Don't get me wrong, you're thinking critically - that's great. I'm all for it. Don't lose that. I was just sharing my view and how the mechanics have been explained to me. 

One thing to keep in mind for the little field is that it's, well, littler. Outside on 60' is about same distance as inside on 90'.

Also, angle is more important than distance so don't over focus on getting closer. (I have this instinct to crash in from C - fine if R3 only. But R1 or R2? No, no, no. Gonna get in trouble doing that).

9 minutes ago, orangebird said:

I truly have no idea how quickly I could get from position C to near 1B for something like a 4-3 putout

 I once got past the pitchers mound from C on a swinging bunt that only my partner and I knew was fair fro the first 5-10 seconds. LOL