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 episode I'll give you a rundown of a recent umpiring clinic I attended as well
as give some tips on how to get your season started.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future episodes, drop me a line at BlueCrewDiaries
at gmail dot com.
So if you're ready, grab your indicator and plate brush and let's hit the field.
Alright everybody, welcome back to another episode of Blue Crew Diaries and Umpire Podcast.
This episode we're going to take a look at a couple of things.
We're going to talk about, as you heard in the intro, an umpiring clinic that I recently
attended as well as some tips and suggestions.
Yes, I know it's only February but just some ways to get your season started on the right
track.
So before we get into that, obviously I have a couple of announcements.
The biggest one really, or only one, is that Little League International has really, in
my opinion, stepped up their game as far as umpire training goes.
It used to be there were only a few umpire universities, or umpire academies they call
them, around the country.
You had to go to your region headquarters and it was like two, three days, a couple
hundred bucks.
This year they seem to be kind of branching out a lot more and they've got a lot of what
they're calling umpire outreach clinics.
There are a bunch of these.
They're all over the country.
If you are not already a member of the Little League umpire registry, very simple, go to
littleleagueumpire.org.
Sign up for the registry.
It's completely free and there's training materials.
You can get a registry certificate to say hey I'm a member of the registry.
It is also where you can submit an application for working a tournament, a regional tournament,
or a World Series.
Those applications are currently closed but come the end of the year they will open back
up.
So you can do that through the registry.
You can download the Little League rule instruction manual.
Also submit a request for background check.
I think it only costs like five bucks and that covers you as far as background check
goes for any league that you might work.
There is also a setup on the umpire registry where if you opt in then leagues around your
area or even specific leagues that you point out in the registry, they will be able to
go to the registry and find your information so they can reach out to you if they're interested
in having you umpire for their league.
So very handy website.
Again it's littleleagueumpire.org.
No spaces, no dashes, nothing like that.
But all of the upcoming trainings and clinics are also listed right on the main page along
with the uh each one has a registration link.
You can click that link and it will give you more about it, allow you to sign up, and all
that fun stuff.
So those clinics have already started.
And the feedback that I have seen on some of the social media is they're great.
You've got you know little league instructors that are teaching these courses and people
seem to like them.
So if you're interested get on the umpire registry and see if there's one coming up
in your area.
Me living up here in the state of Maine it really wasn't feasible for me to travel all
the way to Bristol, Connecticut to attend one of these.
But I did see that there is one coming up in where was it?
I was literally just looking at it.
Coming up in May I believe right?
April 5th, April 5th 2025 down at Halldale High School in Farmingdale, Maine.
Which is only roughly an hour from where I currently live.
And that one's only 30 bucks.
It's a one day thing going over just basic umpire mechanics, rules you need to know,
really just to kind of get everybody on the same page.
So check that out if you are interested.
If you haven't, speaking of background checks, if you haven't submitted your background check
request you can do that.
Another thing that you will need to do is go to littleleague.org website and complete
the abuse awareness training course.
That is mandatory for everybody.
Umpires, coaches, managers, scorekeepers, Snack Shack personnel, anybody that has regular
access, I don't want to say regular access because that just sounds weird, but is regularly
around the kids whether it be at the field or during practices, anything like that.
It is mandatory, you need to complete that course every year.
Littleleague has their own course now.
I literally just did it last week.
It's pretty much the same thing as the USA baseball course, just Littleleague.
So make sure you get that done.
The leagues that you umpire for will be looking or should be looking for proof that you completed
that course.
When you complete the course it does give you a certificate, emails you a certificate
that you can print out.
I would highly recommend that if you have the means.
If not, just take a screenshot of it on your phone so you can at least show the leagues
that you umpire for, hey here's my proof.
It has my name on it, it has the date of completion and a certificate number.
So make sure you get that done sooner rather than later.
Alright, so having rambled on long enough about that, let's get to the main topics.
So a couple of weeks ago the Eastern Maine Baseball Umpires Association held a basic
umpire clinic at the University of Maine in Orono in the Mahaney Dome.
And I decided to attend.
Now Eastern Maine Baseball Umpires, they mostly do high school baseball, middle school baseball,
all the NFHS stuff.
But a lot of their members also umpire Little League, some umpire college, some do Babe
Ruth or whatever.
Once you're an umpire, as long as you're certified you can pretty much umpire just about everything.
So a lot of people do.
So this umpire clinic was open to anyone, whether you were already a seasoned umpire
or you weren't an umpire but you were thinking of becoming one.
This was the clinic for you.
There were, we had three instructors, there were about a dozen of us there in the Mahaney
Dome.
And just on a side note, if you're ever at the University of Maine and you get to work
in the Mahaney Dome or do anything in there, it's one of those big inflatable structures.
If they tell you that there is heat in that structure, I would be willing to call them
a liar because it was a Sunday morning, it was about 20 degrees outside when I got there
and that's about the temperature it was inside the dome.
Once we got in there and started working and moving around and whatnot, it did start to
warm up a little bit but it was still cold.
It was a great time but it was chilly.
One of the poor instructors, Bill, he was freezing to death.
He was all bundled up in his hat and his mittens and his coat.
It was just funny.
I mean, I feel bad for that guy but yeah, she was a little chilly, especially when you
were just standing around talking about things and you weren't actually physically doing
anything.
So, yeah, we had three instructors.
We had Bill Juley who has been umpiring for seemingly ever, pretty much doing mostly high
school stuff.
I believe he's done some college stuff as well.
We have Rob Curtis who is the interpreter, the rules interpreter for Eastern Maine baseball
umpires.
He is also, I believe, still the umpire in chief for Maine District 3 Little League,
which is the district that I work in.
He's done all kinds of umpiring gigs, Little League, high school, everything.
Real great guy, very, very knowledgeable.
If you are really a rules type of person, he's your man.
He's the guy you want to talk to.
And the third instructor was Troy Lair who I have a personal relationship with.
My father and Troy used to work together for the Bangalore Fire Department for about 25
years.
So I've known Troy at least that long.
Actually longer than that because my father's been retired for 10 years.
So yeah, Troy has done everything.
He's been umpiring since I believe the 80s, the late 80s.
He's not that old, but he's been umpiring that long.
He is a former catcher, I believe.
So he's been on both sides.
He has worked high school baseball.
He's worked college baseball.
He's worked Little League.
He even went to, I believe it was the 2018 Little League World Series and was on one
of the umpiring crews for the World Series.
So anybody that wants to know what it's like to work a World Series in Little League, Troy
is the guy you want to talk to.
Any of you umpires out there who have the book Umpire Mentors, which I would highly
recommend, Troy is one of the umpires that gives his insight in that book.
So check that out.
So after everybody got there and we all got situated, everybody introduced themselves.
Hi, my name is so-and-so and I've been umpiring for this many years and these are the levels
that I umpire.
We had a pretty good mix.
We had people that had been umpiring for more than five years.
We had people that this year would be like their first or second year umpiring.
So it was a really good mix between time, umpiring, as well as Little League, high school,
stuff like that.
So like I said, we had about a dozen of us there.
We split into three groups and one group went with Bill and worked on first base.
Pretty much anything you wanted to know about working first base.
Bill was pretty much, he was pretty good at keeping it open.
We got over to first base and he basically said, I really don't have any lesson plan
or anything I specifically want to talk to you guys about.
What do you want to know from me?
That was the very first question he asked is what questions do you guys have?
What do you guys want to learn about working first base?
And I'll tell you, we'll go from there.
So very informative.
There was myself and two other guys in my group.
We had some pretty good questions for Bill, had pretty good conversations.
Yeah, that was, I mean, that was, that was a good time.
After 20, 25 minutes or so, everybody rotated.
My group went down to first, down to home plate and worked with Rob Curtis and we didn't
get into calling balls and strikes or positioning behind the catcher and head height and working
the slot.
We focused on what to do after the ball is put into play.
And we worked on everything.
Like as the home plate umpire, ball is hit to shortstop.
You have a runner on, on second.
Okay.
Well, is that runner?
What are you going to do if that runner decides he's going to try to go third?
Because the throw is coming to first.
Okay.
Well, now that runner doesn't go.
Well, now you've got to cover the play at first.
Oh, well, there was a bad throw and now the ball just wound up in the dugout.
What do you do?
Okay.
Well, you know, and it was, it was all um, you know, positioning and you know, okay,
you got a bad throw.
All right.
Well, now it's your responsibility to call time and award basis to the runners.
And we just went over a lot of that stuff.
As we were doing that, members of the UMaine baseball team started to come in and they're
over in the back corner.
They're just playing pass, throwing around, warming up.
So we got done there at the plate and then everybody rotated again.
We went over to the area of second base around the B and C positions, which is a little different
because working little league, like I do, I'm used to working major and minor division.
I have worked junior before that was different, but you're always working outside.
So first base, whether you're on a 60 foot diamond or a 90 foot diamond, you're, you're
standing in the exact same spot in the A position where it differs is when you're working B
and C on a 60 foot diamond, you're starting outside the base path on the 90 foot diamond.
You're starting on the grass inside the base path.
So that took a little getting used to, but we went over there with Troy and we worked
on again, positioning for infield work, you know, ball struck to the infield.
And his, his big thing was chest to ball, chest to ball, chest to ball, chest to ball.
Wherever that ball is, you need to basically take a string, attach it to the ball and run
that string directly to your chest.
And you, you constantly want to be facing the ball so you know where it is.
Because obviously nothing can happen with the baseball.
Nothing you can't have, you know, you can't have an out call.
You can't have a strikeout.
Nothing really can happen without the ball.
I mean, yes, there are some exceptions to that, but anyway, so as we're working B and
C with Troy, now all of the humane team, pardon me, all of the humane team is now in there.
They're all warmed up and coach Durba from the humane team is also there.
He is a very big proponent of umpires.
This whole umpire clinic was not only put on by Eastern Maine baseball umpires, but
it was also sort of put on by coach Durba and the University of Maine also.
So as we were finishing up with Troy over in the B position, coach Durba and the team
were going to start working on some infield stuff.
So we literally, you know, they coached Durba coordinated with the instructors for the clinic
and said, okay, we're going to, you know, we're going to do ground balls to third, we're
going to do ground balls to shortstop.
And you know, if you want, you know, to rotate your umpires in and out in the B position,
in the C position over in the A position, you know, so they can get actual real world
practice, you know, keeping an eye on the ball, working on positioning where they need
to be for certain plays.
So we, we actually got to do that. And I will tell you one thing, when all you've really
umpired is little league and you get into that dome with division one baseball players,
holy crap does thing, does everything just speed up?
It was like somebody took the speed knob and cranked it to 20. The first, first throw from
the shortstop to the first baseman, I literally, I couldn't turn fast enough to follow the
ball to first base because it's like, holy crap, these guys throw, these guys throw hard.
So we did that for a little while, just kind of rotated out and, and even, even the instructors,
Troy would jump in and, and take a couple of throws and show us stuff and say, okay,
now that you've seen it, get in there and do it. You know, and it was just a cool experience
to be on the field with, with the humane team and, you know, and, and not only learn how
to do what I was there to learn, but also just to watch these guys. I mean, these, these
guys are good. They're good ball players. So once they get done with their infield practice
and they were swapping players in and out, they worked on turning double plays. Okay.
Grounder to third or shortstop. Okay. I'm the umpire. I'm over in, in the C position.
You know, now I got to try to cover this double play at second and then first, you know, there
was, there was a bunch of stuff like that and it was just, it was just cool. It really
was. Definitely learned a lot at that point. So they got done that and then they decide
the humane coach, he decides, okay, we're going to do a scrimmage full, full on scrimmage.
So next thing I know, Troy is walking around and he says, all right, any of you guys that
want to get in on the scrimmage, go put your plate gear on. Okay. Now I was prepared for
this as was everybody else, because when I registered for the clinic, they, Troy actually
emailed out an itinerary of what the day was going to hold. And one of the things was bring
your plate gear because there's, you know, there's probably going to be some plate work.
They may do stuff over in the padding pavilion in the cage, you know, but you know, you,
you be able to see live, live pitches. So I ran over through my plate gear on and yeah,
I think it was like the second or third umpire in each umpire took like two batters. And
the first, first pitch that I, I took was like, holy crap. Now I know it's, it's coming
from 20 feet further away than I'm used to. I'm used to, you know, 40 foot pitching distance.
I'm not used to 60 foot. So it's coming from 20 feet further away, but it's also traveling
damn near twice as fast. So, but the UMaine players were great. I mean, they really were
as soon as I, I walked out, the catcher immediately stood up, took his mask off, walked over,
shook my hand, introduced himself. You know, that, that, that was, that was cool. You know,
these, these guys really respect umpires. Like coach Derber said at the end of the day,
if it wasn't for umpires, you know, we wouldn't have a game to play because there'd be nobody
to officiate it. But yeah, I got to get in there for a couple of, a couple of stints.
I took like four or five batters total. Good, get some, some pretty good pointers from Troy
and Rob, because obviously they were, they were all watching. And as soon as you swapped
out with somebody else, Rob came right up to you and said, okay, here's what I saw.
Um, really the only thing that he had for me was try to work a little more in the slot
and a little less. I mean, I was practically standing right directly behind the catcher
and that almost bit me on one pitch. Uh, in my second, my second stand out there, there
was a, a pitch high and outside. It just, just got by the catcher's mitt, but it wasn't
that far outside. And I, I almost felt the breeze of that ball go past the right side
of my head. And you immediately took a, took a step to the left and went, Whoa, okay. That
was close. But damn, damn, that pitch was thrown hard anyway. Um, but you know, nobody
got hit, no harm, no foul. Um, but uh, yeah, that was just getting, getting to go out there
with division one players and, and work with them was, that was, that was the highlight
of, of the clinic right there. Um, I mean the clinic was free. That, that's the thing.
I literally came home afterwards. Uh, we started, started about seven 30. We finished up a little
before noontime and I came home and I told my fiance, I said, you know, that the clinic
was free, but even if I had paid 50 or a hundred dollars to attend this clinic, I still would
have gotten well more than my money's worth out of it. Um, it was, it was just that much fun. And that was the thing. It was fun. I didn't feel like I was, you know, sitting in a classroom and people telling me how to do things, but no, it was fun. You know, just, it was nice to be out on, on the field again.
Um, you know, in the, in the Mahaney dome, it's turf. That's the first time I've ever
worked on turf. So that was different. Um, you know, first, first time with division
one baseball players, uh, you know, it was, it was a good time all around. It really was.
Um, definitely, definitely would highly recommend. Um, I'm hoping they do another one next year.
They were supposed to do one last year, but the, uh, the Mahaney dome collapsed again
due to the snowstorms that we had got last year. Um, so they didn't get to do it, but
they got to do it this year. And the real nice thing was after we were done, we were
just kind of all having a little powwow in the corner and coach Durba came over and gave
his thoughts on working with umpires and how, how umpires and coaches can get along in the
baseball field and what he expects from umpires and what umpires should expect from coaches.
And he gave us a open invitation. He says, we're here, you know, we're going to be here
the next few weeks, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sundays, you know, whatever times,
and we're going to be doing scrimmages and stuff. If any of you umpires want to come
over and, and call pitches and, you know, work on whatever you want to work on, you
know, get, get ahold of Troy. He'll give you my number, shoot me a text. You're more than
welcome to come over. So I thought that was pretty cool. I haven't taken him up on that
offer yet. Um, but I thought that was cool. So yeah, all right. I've ran it on long enough
about that. Definitely looking forward to, uh, to doing another one next year if they
have one. So the second topic for this episode that sort of transitions from the umpire clinic
is it's, it's time to start getting ready for the 2025 season. Um, obviously we're,
you know, at least here in the, in the state of Maine, we're still a few months out, but
you can never start too early. I know other places around the country, you guys probably
been playing baseball the whole time. Um, but up here in the Northeast, it's still cold.
We just got three or four inches of snow the other day. So, um, that, that's why this,
this podcast episode is a couple of weeks behind because between pretty much my entire
house being sick and, uh, constantly snow blowing two to three inches of snow every
dang night, I really haven't had time to do anything. So, um, just a couple of tips and
suggestions. I do already have a podcast episode about this, um, getting, getting ready for
the season that I did last year. Uh, if you are interested in that, uh, go, go check that
out at his, uh, season one episode four. Uh, so yeah, um, just, just some ways to start,
uh, start getting your nose in the rule book. That, that seems to be one of the big, um,
the big kind of sticking points with, with umpires is everybody wants to go out. They
want to call balls and strikes, safe out, fair foul, all that fun stuff. They don't
want to sit there and study a dang rule book. Um, you know, but a good majority of your
job on the baseball field is knowing and enforcing correctly enforcing the rules. So, um, I
know you need to know the rules. The more you know the rules, the better your games
are going to be. The more, I don't want to say the more respect you're going to get,
but people are going to know, okay, this umpire, they're taking the time to, to really know
the rules, to be able to, you know, officiate the game correctly and get things right. So
that, that'll, that'll cut, you know, that'll get you a little bit of slack from, from people.
Um, so just start getting into it. You know, even if it's, you know, you read a chapter,
you know, every couple of nights, you know, just spend 10, 15 minutes just nosing through
the rule book. Um, yeah, it definitely will help, especially when you get that super odd
situation and you think, oh, well, geez, you know, I, I literally just read that in the
rule book two weeks ago. Here's, here's the rule. Here's how I need to apply it. Um, so
definitely start, uh, start getting, start getting into the rule book. Um, now is the
time to start going through all of your gear, your uniforms, your protective, you know,
gear, your plate gear, start going through all of that stuff and make sure everything's
in good working order. Uh, upgrade if you want to upgrade anything. Now is probably
the time to do it before everything goes out of stock. Um, and if you have stuff that you
need to replace, start replacing it now because a couple of months from now, baseball season's
going to be in full swing and preparedness for baseball is going to be in full swing
and you're going to start seeing, um, these, these gear retailers start running out of
stuff or if you need uniforms, okay, well yeah, you can get, you know, a new pair of
plate pants, but in order to get them hemmed, um, you know, it, it's going to be, you know,
three, four, five weeks now. Whereas if you've got new plate pants, you know, now you might
have only had to avoid, you know, waited a couple of days. So start going through that
stuff. I've already started going through mine. Um, I actually did a couple of weeks
ago before the, before the clinic. Um, the other night I was actually sitting here at
my computer watching YouTube and I pulled my indicator apart and, and cleaned it all
up. I've got it right here on my desk. Um, you can probably hear me clicking it because
I'm a nerd like that. Um, but you know, I, I got that ready to go. So that's, I know
that's ready. I, I didn't, you know, I didn't break it during the, uh, during last season.
I don't need to replace it. Everything's good there. Um, I'm still, still contemplating
on upgrading the chest protector. Um, still don't know where I'm going to go with that
yet. I don't know if I do upgrade it, if I'm going to go with one of the new Jerry Davis
chest protectors or I've, I've still got my, my eye on that, uh, all star cobalt. So, um,
I may not even upgrade this year. I don't know. We'll see. Um, start getting ready
physically, not just mentally with the rules, but physically. Um, obviously we have the
off season, the winter time, you know, it's, it's not that easy to get outside and, and
do anything. Um, obviously we had the holidays and everybody ate way too much. I know I did,
just start getting, start getting in shape. Um, even if it's just simple, simple stuff,
you know, do, do 25 squats in the morning when you get out of bed or, you know, do,
do some pushups at night or just something to start, start, get that process moving.
Um, I'm not, you know, I'm not saying that you have to go to the gym every single night
for two hours, but just, you know, start, start getting, start getting on that. Um,
yes, that is something that I need to start doing. Um, hopefully once the, uh, the sickness
gets out of the house, I'll be able to, uh, to start doing that myself. But you know,
physicality is, is a big thing. Um, you don't, you don't really know how out of shape you
are until you try to do something and find out while I'm out of shape. So start, uh,
yeah, start getting in the rule book, inspect all your gear, do whatever you need to do
there. Um, upgrade, replace, just clean your stuff. You know, I mean, cleaning and, and
upkeep is, is, uh, is also a big thing and start, start preparing physically as well
as mentally. Um, speaking of the rules, uh, those of you who have listened to the podcast
over the previous year know that I am a big proponent of the California district for a
YouTube channel. They just posted the other night, the first 2025 little league rules
clinic it is on their YouTube channel. Um, just go to YouTube and search for, uh, California
district for little league and you'll be able to find it on there. Very, very great videos.
Yes. It, it can almost be like listening to Ben Stein at times. It's more of just a classroom
setting or going over the rules and, and whatnot. And yes, it can be boring, but they, they
really tend to focus on the rules that you really need to know as an umpire. So, um,
yeah, check those out. California district for, uh, they sh I believe they are doing,
um, rules clinics every week now, at least for the next few weeks. So the first one is
out now. The second one should be coming out shortly. Uh, definitely check that out. So
that brings us to the end of a, a little bit extended episode. I'm a little long winded
in case you can notice. Uh, but one thing that I also wanted to add to the podcast for
this new season is a question of the episode. And basically at the end of each episode,
I'm just going to go into the little league rule book and pull out a rule and see if you
guys know the answer. So this month's or this episode's question is the following. At what
point does the umpire crew officially take charge of the playing field? At what point
does the umpire crew officially take charge of the playing field for little league game?
I will give you the answer in the next episode, but until then, I want to thank you all for
listening. Really appreciate it. Um, or watching on YouTube. If you're, if you're watching
it through that media, if you have any questions, comments, ideas for future episodes, send
me an email, blue crew diaries at gmail.com. Also be sure to again, check out the YouTube
channel if you haven't already. And we also have a discord server now, um, that nobody
has signed up for yet. And honestly, I really don't expect it to be, um, it's just something
I want to do. Um, so yeah, that is about it from here. So as always, thank you all very
much for listening and I will see you on the diamond.