1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an 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 episode, we're going to talk a little bit about the 2 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:48,000 things that you can do to make sure you are ready for the upcoming season. If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, drop me a line at BlueCrewDiaries@gmail.com. So if you're ready, grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field. 3 00:00:48,000 --> 00:01:12,000 All right, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Blue Crew Diaries. My name is Daryl and in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about getting ready for the season. Yes, the local little league that I umpire with or for, we're about a month away from opening day. 4 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:23,000 So, I'm going through my gear bag, making sure I have everything, which I should have everything. I haven't touched it since fall ball last year. 5 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:43,000 But basically going down through kind of this checklist to make sure that I am ready for the season. You definitely do not want to wait for the last minute to do all this stuff because it's just not going to work out very well for you. 6 00:01:43,000 --> 00:02:01,000 So, starting off with your gear. Yes, your gear. You want to make sure that your gear is ready to go. Like I said, pretty much my everything in my gear bag. I haven't touched since the end of last year. 7 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:22,000 So, definitely want to go through your gear. So, when you pull your gear out of the bag, you want to check over everything. Okay, you want to check your mask, make sure that your mask doesn't have any damage, possibly from last season where you took a, you know, took a foul ball or something like that. 8 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:34,000 You want to make sure your harness is in good shape. If you need to make adjustments to your harness, now is the time to do that to make sure you get a proper fit for your mask. 9 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:58,000 The traditional mask, you want them to fit a little bit loose so that when you tilt your head down, the mask kind of comes off of your face just a little bit. And that will give you a little bit more cushion. If you do take a foul ball to the mask, it'll allow that mask to kind of absorb more of that impact. 10 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Now, if you are using the Force III Defender mask, their traditional mask, they recommend that you have that not tight to your face, but nice and secure against your face, because the springs in that mask are going to take up that impact. 11 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:37,000 So, make sure your mask and your harness are good to go. Same thing with your chest protector. Take a look over your chest protector, put it on, make sure it fits, make adjustments as you need to with that. 12 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:51,000 It probably wouldn't hurt to maybe spray the inside of it with a little Febreze or something like that, because it's probably not going to smell all that great when you first take it out of the bag. 13 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Make sure all the buckles are good. You don't have any cracked buckles or broken items on the chest protector. 14 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:08,000 And just make sure everything fits. Same goes with the shin guards. Make sure that your shin guards fit properly. 15 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Make any adjustments that you need to make there. If you do find broken equipment, now is the time to get new stuff. 16 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:36,000 You definitely don't want to wait until the first game of the season. You get to the field, pull your shin guards out of your gear bag to put them on for that first game and realize that you have a broken strap or something like that. 17 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:49,000 If you have the means to carry extra straps, harnesses, even a full extra mask, that would definitely be a good idea. 18 00:04:49,000 --> 00:05:05,000 As I said in I believe the last episode, I am switching to the Force III Defender mask, but I'm also bringing my Champ Pro mask with me in the gear bag, just in case something happens with the Force III. 19 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:12,000 I don't anticipate any problems, especially with the UMP Life harness that I got for it. 20 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:19,000 But if something happens, I have that spare mask. Or if I'm working the bases. 21 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:28,000 Remember last episode, I said every piece of gear that I have, even my plate gear, comes with me to the field no matter what I'm working. 22 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:48,000 So if I'm working the bases and the plate umpire somehow forgets his or her mask, I can go into my gear bag and they can either wear my Force III Defender or I'll loan them my Champ Pro basic face mask for the game. 23 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:58,000 So look over all of your gear. Now is the time to buy replacements if you need to. 24 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Another thing is your shoes. Make sure that your laces on your shoes are good, both your plate shoes and your base shoes. 25 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,000 I would recommend a good thorough cleaning of them. 26 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:22,000 Even if you want to really get in depth with the cleaning and take the laces out of the shoes, scrub them down, clean them up. 27 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:32,000 The plate shoes, I would recommend putting a couple of coats of polish on them just so they look good. 28 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:39,000 You definitely want to look good when you're out there. You want to look like you know what you're doing. 29 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:45,000 So make sure your shoes are cleaned, they're shined up, they're ready to go. 30 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:58,000 Any other gear that you have, just do a visual inspection of it. Your indicator, if you have the ability to take your indicator apart, clean it, lube it up. 31 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:07,000 I would highly suggest doing that. I plan to do that on mine here a little later on this afternoon. 32 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:13,000 Yeah, just go over all of your gear, make sure everything's ready to go for the season. 33 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:25,000 Uniforms. Take your uniforms out, put your uniforms on, make sure that your pants fit. 34 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 We are a few months after the holidays, people have been eating a lot. 35 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:38,000 If you're not involved in any other sports, then you've probably just been sitting around the house all winter doing nothing. 36 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:47,000 So you may have to make some adjustments to your pants. You may have to get new pants. 37 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:54,000 Make sure that they fit, make sure that they're the correct length. 38 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Same thing with your shirts. Make sure you put all of your gear on, your chest protector, your shin guards, and then put your plate uniform on. 39 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:13,000 Make sure that all of that fits together. Make sure that your base shirt and pants fit properly. 40 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:24,000 And whatever you do, please, please, please wash your uniforms before the first game. 41 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:33,000 Even your backup uniforms, wash those because you don't want to show up to the field and have a coach walk up to you and go, whoa, boy. 42 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:39,000 But that shirt apparently has not been out of the bag since last year, has it? 43 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:47,000 You don't want to be the smelly umpire that just does not does not scream professionalism. 44 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:55,000 So make sure that you try all your gear, uniforms on. Now, like I said, is the time to make changes. 45 00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:02,000 Ideally, you should start this process a couple of months out from your first from your first game. 46 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:14,000 But it's entirely up to you. You don't have to do any of this, but don't be surprised when you get to your first game and you find that something is amiss. 47 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:21,000 Next thing I would highly recommend is brush up on the rulebook. 48 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:33,000 For 2024, there are not any there. There's only a couple of changes to Little League's rulebook, 49 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:41,000 none of which on the baseball side affect umpires. 50 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:46,000 Until you get to tournament time, but that's that's a few months down the road anyway. 51 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:52,000 But brush up on the rulebook. Make sure you have a basic understanding of the rules. 52 00:09:52,000 --> 00:10:06,000 You don't have to be the the encyclopedia of rules and know each and every one and be able to recite each and every single rule verbatim without even looking at the book. 53 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:12,000 You don't need to do that. Just have a solid grasp on the rules. 54 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:24,000 And have a rulebook near you. OK, I carry the the physical copy of the Little League rulebook in my gear bag. 55 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:36,000 So it's there with all my games. If I am the base umpire, I will typically have my cell phone in my pocket and I have the Little League rulebook app on my phone. 56 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:49,000 So between innings or after a game, something like that, if I need to reference a rule regarding a call that was made, boom, I either I either have it on my phone. 57 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:53,000 I can pull it out, bring the app up and and research it that way. 58 00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:02,000 Or I can go to my gear bag after the game, grab the physical book. 59 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:17,000 Regarding rules, if there are any rules clinics in your area or umpire clinics in your area, I would highly, highly, highly suggest that you attend those. 60 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:23,000 Not just from the rules side, but also from the mechanics side. 61 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:35,000 I know one of the high school baseball umpire associations here in Maine was going to have a free umpire clinic. 62 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:43,000 Back in I believe it was supposed to be the middle of January over at the University of Maine. 63 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,000 Just going over mechanics and they were going to do some cage work and things like that. 64 00:11:48,000 --> 00:12:01,000 And that still hasn't happened yet because the inflatable dome that the University of Maine has that this was going to take place in collapsed about a year and a half ago. 65 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:19,000 But normally, if you're working Little League, your local Little League district will typically in most areas have a rules clinic or an intro umpire clinic. 66 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:27,000 I know my local district is having one here coming up in a couple of weeks. 67 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:33,000 It is, let's just say, not being very well advertised. 68 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:39,000 And they wonder why everybody short umpires. 69 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:43,000 So attend those if you have the means. 70 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:50,000 Also online on YouTube rules clinics can also be very, very helpful of us. 71 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:56,000 As I said in the past episode, California District 4 Little League. 72 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,000 Look them up on YouTube. 73 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:03,000 They have multiple rules clinics. 74 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 They go right down through the rule book every year. 75 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,000 They've already done their rules clinics for this year. 76 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:12,000 Believe those were posted last month. 77 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,000 Check those out. 78 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:16,000 Some really, really good information. 79 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:20,000 They really break the rule book down very well. 80 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,000 I would highly recommend that. 81 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:29,000 So YouTube California District 4 Little League. 82 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaking of that, master your mechanics. 83 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:48,000 I mean, I know for a fact that umpires all over the world will sit in their living room or their bedroom with their indicator in their hand watching a baseball game on TV. 84 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:54,000 And they'll be standing there and they will basically umpire the game. 85 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,000 They'll work on their mechanics. 86 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:02,000 They'll work on, you know, plate work, stuff like that. 87 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:08,000 Yeah, you look a little funny doing it, but it does help. 88 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,000 Practice. 89 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,000 A lot of people say practice makes perfect. 90 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,000 My old shop teacher used to say practice makes permanent. 91 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000 So take that however you want. 92 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:30,000 In mastering your mechanics, you also want to rehearse other things. 93 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,000 So one big thing is the plate meeting. 94 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,000 What are you going to say at the plate meeting? 95 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,000 How are you going to present yourself at the plate meeting? 96 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:43,000 A lot of umpires get to the plate meeting and have absolutely no idea what they're doing. 97 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:53,000 They're just standing there looking at the two coaches like, okay, well, are we supposed to talk about something or so? 98 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Practice that stuff. 99 00:14:55,000 --> 00:15:09,000 In my lineup card holder that I keep in my shirt pocket, I have a little checklist on the inside that I printed out with things to talk about at the plate meeting. 100 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,000 Not a bad idea. 101 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:17,000 But rehearse this kind of stuff before you get on the field. 102 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Rehearse how you're going, how you would deal with an angry coach or manager, an angry player, angry fans. 103 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:33,000 How are you going to respond to that? 104 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Make up random situations in your head. 105 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:45,000 And then mentally rehearse your response and how you would handle that situation. 106 00:15:45,000 --> 00:16:00,000 On kind of a side note, a gentleman that I worked with about 15 years ago was also a part time police officer, as was his brother. 107 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:13,000 And one night, his brother responded to an incident and a person approached him with a knife. 108 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,000 And he was forced to draw his firearm. 109 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:21,000 Luckily, he didn't have to pull the trigger. 110 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:26,000 He got compliance from the individual who put the knife down or whatever. 111 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:40,000 But in talking about this incident, he told his brother, my former coworker, that he completely froze when he saw this situation developing. 112 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:41,000 He didn't know what to do. 113 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,000 He didn't know what to say. 114 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000 He was just frozen. 115 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:54,000 And then he thought, OK, I need to, you know, return a greater amount of force. 116 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 So he drew his firearm. 117 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:04,000 But he said that the gun was shaking in his hand because he just massive adrenaline dump. 118 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,000 He didn't know what to do. 119 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:18,000 So my former coworker thought about that and started thinking about different situations that he could run into while on patrol. 120 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:29,000 And about six months later, he was approached by an individual holding a knife walking towards him. 121 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:40,000 But because he had rehearsed how he would respond to a situation like this over and over and over again, he was calm. 122 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,000 He was cool. 123 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,000 He knew exactly what he needed to do. 124 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:55,000 Drew his firearm, ordered the individual on the ground, ordered the individual to put the knife down, you know, and said what he had rehearsed. 125 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:05,000 And he very quickly gained compliance. The subject put the knife down, responded to his orders and the situation was resolved. 126 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:16,000 So mentally rehearsing situations that you can come across on the baseball field can definitely be to your benefit. 127 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:25,000 So rehearse this stuff, have a game plan for when something happens. 128 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:30,000 Always try to be proactive, not reactive. 129 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:38,000 And lastly, just take a look at your overall health and fitness level. 130 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:43,000 This is something that I'm trying to to get into. 131 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:48,000 I'm a real hard person to motivate, but I will get there. 132 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,000 But just just think about it. 133 00:18:50,000 --> 00:19:00,000 I mean, if you're working the plate, you're going to be doing, you know, a couple of hundred squats in a game. 134 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:11,000 Just standing behind the catcher, getting down, you know, squatting down into your stance, call the pitch, stand back up, get down into your stance, call the pitch, stand back up. 135 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:16,000 You're doing hundreds of this of these every game. 136 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:27,000 And if you're working a double header, boy, you know, part of being an umpire is also the hustle. 137 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:33,000 Getting into position, getting where you need to be. 138 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:43,000 You know, if you are working the plate, there's a ground ball to say the shortstop. 139 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:51,000 Your job, if there's nobody else on base, your job is to hustle up that first baseline. 140 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:59,000 Behind the runner, behind the batter runner and make sure you don't have a runner's lane violation. 141 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,000 You're looking for the first baseman's foot. 142 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:09,000 Make sure it does not come off the bag until after he has secure possession of the baseball. 143 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,000 You're looking for stuff like that. You're looking for obstruction. 144 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,000 You're looking for interference. 145 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:19,000 Same thing if you have runners on base and you have to take a call at third. 146 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:24,000 You've got a runner going from second to third. Your base umpire is already occupied. 147 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000 He's going going out for a fly ball. 148 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:34,000 You've got to get down there to to watch that play if the ball is coming in. 149 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:42,000 So there's there's a lot of hustle that goes on between the base umpire and the plate umpire. 150 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,000 Base umpire, you're all over the place. 151 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:54,000 There have been times I'll be over in the seat position last year with a runner on third and something happens. 152 00:20:54,000 --> 00:21:01,000 That runner gets thrown out or they take off for for home on a ground ball. 153 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:03,000 They're out at that home plate. 154 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:09,000 So now I'm over in C. Well, now there's nobody else on on base except for first base. 155 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,000 So now I got to hustle all the way back over there, you know, over to B. 156 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:23,000 Or if there's there's no runners on, I got to go from C position almost at third base all the way back over to the A position. 157 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:30,000 And I want to get there as quickly as I can because I don't want to hold up the game for the next batter. 158 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:34,000 So there's there's quite a bit of hustle there. 159 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:48,000 So just make sure you don't have to be, you know, in the most brilliant, perfect shape that anybody has ever been in the history of of mankind. 160 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:56,000 But just make sure you're not going to drop in the middle of a game. 161 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:02,000 So that is it for this episode. 162 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,000 Hopefully you are looking forward to the season. 163 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:14,000 I know I am only about a month to go, and then I'll have I'll have people throwing baseballs in my face. 164 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Can't wait. 165 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,000 So, yeah, look forward to the season. 166 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:30,000 Try and be the best umpire that you can both physically from a from an appearance standpoint and also working. 167 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:35,000 You know, try to make the correct calls if at all possible. 168 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:42,000 Study up on the rulebook so you can at least appear to know what you're doing. 169 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,000 That's half the battle. 170 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,000 So as always, thank you very much for listening and I will see you on the diamond.