What's up everybody welcome to Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire podcast.
My name is Daryl and I will be your host as we take a look behind the mask so to speak
sharing stories insights and experiences from the unique perspective of the baseball umpire.
In this inaugural episode we'll take a look at my history as an umpire, why I decided
to start a podcast in the first place, and the kinds of topics that we will be discussing
in future episodes.
So if you're ready grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field.
Alright everybody let's get started first off with who am I?
So again my name is Darrell and I live up here in the state of Maine.
I am getting ready for my second ever season as a baseball umpire.
I just started in the 2023 season and I didn't really take the normal track that most umpires
take.
I didn't play little league, I didn't play high school ball, I didn't even go to college
so no college ball there.
Really the only ball that I ever played was in gym class in school and that was mostly
softball.
So a lot of your umpires out there they played little league, they played high school ball,
college ball, or maybe just little league or something like that and then decided to
work back in on the other side if you will with the third team as people call us.
I didn't take that route.
A couple of years ago in 2022 one of the owners of the auto parts store that I work for approached
me about possibly umpiring for the local little league in that city which he happened to be
the treasurer of.
At that point I never even thought about umpiring.
I did watch the little league world series and stuff like that.
I was never really a big MLB guy, I'm still not.
I like the little league stuff and just kids out having fun.
So he told me hey we're looking for umpires let me know if you're interested.
I thought about it a little bit and thought well I don't know maybe, maybe not.
Didn't really think of it all that much throughout the 2022 season but in the off season between
2022 and 2023 I started to look into it a little bit more, a little more seriously.
I got on the little league international umpire registry, started looking at some of that
stuff, started watching youtube videos as far as mechanics and rules videos.
So by the beginning of 2023 I was fairly familiar with what was going on and that same owner
approached me again and said hey we're still looking for umpires just you know if you're
interested.
And then I noticed that the league or the local district was going to be putting on
a free umpire clinic just prior to the start of the season.
And it was just basic little league rules, mechanics, you know a little bit of positioning
stuff like that.
The clinic was only literally an hour and 45 minutes.
So I thought about it and I told my boss you know what sign me up for the clinic and if
I decide it's something I don't want to do I'm not out anything no big deal.
So I went and took the clinic.
Suffice to say that I don't want to talk down about anyone here but I learned more watching
a couple of videos on youtube than I did in that umpire clinic.
Literally like I said the clinic was about an hour and 45 minutes.
Around an hour of that was in the classroom and it was very very basic simple stuff.
What is a ball?
What is a strike?
What is a fair ball?
What's a foul ball?
Safe?
Out?
A little bit of obstruction interference stuff just just real basic stuff.
And then we went out we were at the local parks and rec building which oddly enough
does not have a baseball field.
So we went out into the gymnasium and worked on mechanics.
This is how you call you know this is the preferred mechanic for a strike.
This is how you call an out.
This is how you call safe, fair, foul all that.
Worked on a little bit of positioning not too much and then after about 45 minutes out
in the gym it was well if you have any questions send us an email thanks for coming see you
later.
That was it.
So I got in touch with the umpire in chief for the local little league that I was going
to work with.
And talked to him a little bit.
He had a meeting that ended up not happening for whatever reason at the first game of the
season.
He was going to have a meeting with all those prospective umpires and I was the only one
that showed up.
I had no idea who I was looking for as far as my UIC.
So I watched the game and I left.
Got a hold of him later that night through text message and said hey I was there.
I didn't see a group of people standing around.
It was all mostly fans watching the kids play.
So he said no biggie.
We really didn't even have a meeting.
So come to the field tomorrow night.
Let me know when you're there.
I'll come find you and we'll talk.
So did that and talked with him and said no I'm ready to go.
I had already bought all my gear.
I went out on Amazon and bought the Cham Pro what I would call umpire in a box.
It comes with the chest protector, shin guards, mask, indicator, plate brush, one ball bag
and I think that was it.
I went and bought plate shoes.
I bought some uniforms, pants and shirt.
So I was fairly well ready to go.
I did buy a pair of base shoes and that was that.
So unknown to me that same week my fiance ended up having a stroke and I say unbeknownst
to me because she didn't even really know.
Monday she just thought she had a headache but she was dizzy and confused.
Ended up being transported to the hospital from the place that she worked.
The emergency room diagnosed her with a severe migraine.
Sent her home.
And they did do an MRI and that didn't show anything.
So a couple of days later she said something is still not right.
Decided on Thursday to go back to the emergency room.
They did another MRI and went ugh looks like you had a stroke.
So as I'm sitting there in the hospital room with her my phone goes off and it's my UIC.
Hey just to let you know I got you scheduled for a big week next week.
And I immediately messaged him right back and said dude as much as I hate to do this
I've got bigger stuff going on right now.
Which he completely understood.
He was perfectly fine with it.
He said when you get everything straightened out let me know if you're still going to be
able to work at all this year.
And he did check in a couple of times over the next week or so just to see how the family
was doing and what not.
So I appreciate him for that.
And after about a week and a half we finally got my fiance home.
Everything is good now.
So I talked it over with her and she said yup I'm good go ahead.
So I messaged him and said I'm in let's go.
So he messages me back on a Thursday early afternoon and says hey I get you scheduled
tomorrow night Friday night at 530.
Got you on the plate.
And I'm like well damn I've literally I still hadn't even stepped on a baseball field at
this point in over 20 years.
The last time I set foot on a baseball field was in gym class my freshman year of high
school and that was in 2001.
The spring of 2001.
Here we are the spring of 2023.
It's been like 22 years since I've set foot on a baseball field and my very first game
umpiring in any capacity whatsoever is going to be behind the plate.
Okay.
So I asked him are there any particular ground rules for the field that I need to be aware
of or this that and the other thing.
He put me in touch well he didn't even put me in touch he told me go to the field tonight
there's a game being played tonight.
Go to the field and seek out Darren.
Darren is going to be the home plate umpire for tonight's game.
Tell him who you are.
Tell him I told you to go talk to him and he'll he'll take care of you.
So, I showed up at the field saw Darren sitting on the bleachers just watching the kids warm
up.
Went over introduced myself shook his hand sat next to him told him I've never done this
before and I got the plate tomorrow night.
What can you give me for advice?
So he gave me a few pointers on strike zone and and setting up and whatnot and then he
stands up he says come with me.
And this was the first time that I walked out onto a field.
Walk through the gate and we went over to the home team dugout.
And that's where he showed me you know the pregame inspection what to look for in the
bats what to look for in the batting helmets catcher's gear all that.
And we went and did the visiting team and and inspected all their stuff talked to the
coaches on both sides.
You know it was it was just a friendly atmosphere.
So we got done that and then the base umpire for that particular night showed up.
And he came out introduced myself to him and then Darren says well he says so you're not
completely new with this if you want why don't you stick around work third base tonight.
All right I'm game let's go.
So I ran back to the truck got my I already had an umpire jacket ran grabbed my jacket
threw that on went back out work third base that night.
Everything was great.
Then the next night I had the plate and after that it was okay.
Yeah I think I can do this.
I think I think I'm going to be okay here.
There there were a few bumps in the road in the 2023 season I'll get into those in later
episodes but I ended up working have to go back through my notes I believe I ended up
working 18 games total in 2023 between Little League minors majors and junior division worked
few junior games.
I only I didn't only work one minors game but that was a lot of fun.
I mean it's it's minors I was by myself behind the plate but you know it was a good time.
No one no one really took it that seriously.
So for any of the seasoned umpires out there that have been doing this for a long time
you are probably laughing right now.
Oh 18 games and holy crap that that's it.
You know I I work more than that on a weekend.
But for me my very first year out as an umpire to work 18 games and a couple of those were
were double headers.
I do count those as two games but I think I only worked 14 actual days on the field
with a few double headers in there.
So overall I am excited to get back at it.
I have only made one gear change so far.
Well I shouldn't say that.
I shouldn't say that.
I made quite a few gear changes last year in 2023.
I ended up upgrading my indicator right off the bat because the one that come that came
with the champro kit I mean it's it works.
It works.
But I got one of the nice all star heavy weight ones with the notched dials to tell you your
ball striking out counts.
I upgraded to two ball bags instead of just the one.
I do like having the two.
I can keep a water bottle in one side and you know fresh base balls in the other side.
And then if I have you know an old ball or a damaged ball or something like that instead
of throwing that in with the new balls I can throw it over in my other side with the water
bottle.
So I still have them if I need them but they're not mixed in with the brand new balls over
on my right side.
Let's see what else did I upgrade.
I think that's all I upgraded last year.
I am trying out a new mask this year.
I hope that was the other thing I upgraded last year I upgraded from the champro pads
on my mask to the team Wendy pads.
Six of one half does in the other essentially.
I only took one one ball off the mask last year so didn't really get to try the team
Wendy pads out.
Hopefully I don't ever have to.
But you know how that is.
But this year I have upgraded to the force three defender traditional style mask and
we're going to give that a shot and see what happens.
So why did I decide to start a podcast.
I know I rambled on in the first section I'll try not to do it here.
There are as I'm sure you are well aware a lot of great podcasts out there a lot of great
YouTube channels out there with regards to umpiring.
What I have failed to find is one that specifically centers around little league and that is all
I work right now.
I work for one league up here in the state of Maine.
That's it.
I don't travel around the district.
I mean I would but I just want to get get established where I'm at one league and just
stick with it for for a couple of years before I start trying to move around.
The nice thing with the league that I'm at is they currently play on two different fields.
The minors field is literally two minutes walking distance from where I work and the
majors field is about two minutes driving from where I work and most of the games are
at 5 30.
I get out of work at 4 30 so I can change into my gear put my uniform on right at work
jump in the truck and be at the field for five o'clock.
So I'm always a half hour early.
So that's why I've stuck with where I'm at now.
I also want to focus solely on little league.
A lot of the other podcasts out there are either NFHS umpires or collegiate you know
NCAA umpires stuff like that.
There are some major league and minor league umpires out there doing podcasts but I want
to focus solely on little league because that's that's where I'm at right now.
So that is the direction that this podcast will take focusing on little league mechanics
rules.
Although I only worked 18 games last year I do have a decent number of stories and I'm
sure more stories will come out as we get into the 2024 season.
So that kind of gets into the third point of this episode is the kind of topics we'll
be discussing.
Yeah pretty much anything little league umpire game situations rules interpretations things
that have happened in game mechanics rules all all kinds of stuff.
I know I'm repeating myself here but that's what we're going to be talking about.
I'm probably going to plan on these episodes coming out about once a month for right now.
If things change and I get you know requests to do more episodes more frequently and I
have the content to do more frequent episodes then we'll we may look at a bimonthly you
know bimonthly release of episodes especially when we get into the into the season I'm sure
a lot more a lot more stuff and more topics will present themselves.
So right now one a month that that may vary a little bit but we'll start with that and
see what happens.
So if I have not totally bored you to death by now I just want to thank you for listening.
I hope as we get deeper in the season and get some more episodes up on the pack up excuse
me up on the podcast.
No I will not edit that out.
I'm not one of those people that edits out my mistakes.
If I make a mistake I own it.
So hopefully you get everything you're looking for out of the podcast.
I will start doing social media and things like that.
I've got to get an email address together so that if you have topics things that you've
had happen on the field or your experiences when I get that up and get the social media
and stuff up and going feel free to send that stuff to me.
I will and I'll let you know when when that gets started and when I get an email address
up and going to to send me that kind of stuff.
So thank you again for listening to my ramblings on.
That's kind of what I tend to do.
People tell me I talk too much.
So I apologize if I do but thank you again for listening and I will see you in the next
episode.