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'll talk about the first week
of my season and how things look going forward.
As always, if you have any questions, comments,
or ideas for future episodes, drop me a line
at bluecrewdiaries at gmail .com. So if you're
ready, Grab your indicator and plate brush and
let's hit the field. All right, everybody, welcome
back to another episode here of the Blue Crew
Diaries and Umpire Podcast. And as you heard
in the intro, this episode will pretty much be
about the first week of my Little League umpiring
season. Yeah, kind of where I see things going
forward from here. But before we get into that,
a couple of just basic announcement type stuff.
Little League Umpire Outreach Clinics are still
going on. If you're interested in those, you
can find those listed on the umpire registry,
littleleagueumpire, all one word, .org. So be
sure to check those out if you're interested
and if there happens to be one near you. I know
there are some leagues out there that will actually
reimburse umpires to go to one of these outreach
clinics. I'm sure not all of them do that, but
I believe there are some that are actually doing
that. Might be something worth looking into.
Also on the umpire registry is the umpire rules
challenge. I believe it is like 70 questions.
I honestly should know. I've taken it a few times.
But really gets into real specific situations
that you may find yourself in and what rules
would apply to those situations. Definitely something
to check out if you are interested. Like I said,
I've done it a couple of times and found it really
helpful. So again, those are on the Umpire Registry.
As far as YouTube, if you are interested in rules
clinics, again, California District 4 cannot
recommend it enough. They've got their rules
clinics up for the past few years. And I believe
they plan on doing some fall ball clinics here
in the near future. So definitely get on their
YouTube page and check those out. All right.
So getting into the topic of today's episode.
My first week of 2025 in Little League started
officially on Saturday, May 3rd with our. Opening
day for the league that I've worked with the
past two seasons that I almost didn't work with
again this year. Let's just say there is a whole
new board of directors, literally a whole new
board. Towards the end of last year, they had
a big public election for the board. And from
what I understand, there was a pretty big turnout
for this election. And of all of the people that
were on the board at that time, only two of them
got elected to this new board. And like I said,
that was, I believe, last November, November
of 2024. And to my knowledge, both of those people
have already quit. This new board. Just due to
some of the goings on and dealings of this new
board. It almost seems to me that they are trying
as hard as they can to basically undo everything
that the previous board did. I don't know all
the fine details of it, but... That's what it
seems like to me from what I have heard. So it
was literally the week before opening day that
I finally figured out who was going to be the
umpire -in -chief for this league. And turns
out it is somebody that I am very familiar with.
He's been the umpire -in -chief for the last
two seasons that I've worked. At the end of last
year, he said he was all done. He'd had enough.
But with all the goings on with this new board,
apparently they've been so busy basically stumbling
around in the dark that they haven't even thought
about an umpire -in -chief yet. So they got a
hold of him, said, hey, can you at least help
us out for a couple of weeks and get our umpire
roster filled out? And, you know, and then kind
of teach somebody on the board how to do this.
And then we can take him from there. So he agreed
and got a hold of me and a couple of the other
guys from last year and the year before. And
I honestly thought real hard about it. Whether
or not I was going to go back to this league
just with all the stuff that they've been doing
and whatnot. And then I got to talking with him.
And it's like, you know what? It's for the kids.
That's the end goal. It's for the kids. I think
some members of this board have completely forgotten
that. And if they haven't forgotten it, they're
only thinking about their kid, which is kind
of pathetic. And that's the thing, like, with
me and one of my, well, I call him my mentor,
one of my fellow umpires for this league, Darren,
is him and I, we don't have any kids in this
league. I mean, neither of my kids even want
to play baseball or softball. I have two daughters.
You know, neither one of them really want to
play. So, I don't have a dog in the fight. Darren
doesn't have a dog in the fight. You know, we're
out there doing this for all the kids. Not just
our own. And I think that's... That's something
that a few people really need to think about
and take a look at. Why are they a member of
this little league board? And I get it. There
are some, like one member of the board who has
already left the new board. I believe this was
going to be his last year anyway. Because this
is probably going to be the last year that his
son plays Little League. He's going to age out
of minors at the end of this season. And as far
as I know, his son doesn't have any plans on
playing junior ball. He's going to focus more
on school ball. And good for him. I mean, he's
had a pretty good run. with Little League, and
if he doesn't want to continue, eh, no biggie.
But yeah, anyway, I'm off on a tangent here.
I apologize. Those of you who know me know that
I love to talk. So, for those of you who have
not completely tuned out yet, so Saturday, May
3, is opening day. I find out that they are planning
on having five games, two majors games, and then
three minor games. They have three minor teams
this year in this particular league, four major
teams. So two major games will allow all four
major teams to play a game, which is cool. You
know, regular six -inning regulation game. But
in the three minors games, they were going to
do kind of like a round robin sort of a deal.
So team one and two would play two innings or
one hour, whichever came first. And then team
one and three would do the same thing. And then
team two and three would do the same thing. So
three two inning or one hour games and all three
minors teams would get to play twice. which is
cool um you know and and i know a lot of you
are probably like well those can't be official
games there's only two innings and stuff one
thing that you you need to think about is you
know they're they're not trying to do you know
none of these kids on the minors teams are going
to bump up this year into the majors or you know
most of them probably even They may not even
field an all -star team this year out of the
minors, or what we would call a minor all -star
team, like a 10U team. You know, a lot of these
players that are in minors this year, I would
say about 90 % of them are coming up into minors
from Machine Pitch Farm League last year. So
you've got kids on the mound. that have never
pitched before. You've got kids behind the plate
that have never caught before because in Farm
League, they don't use a catcher. And I know
because I moderated the Farm League Championship
tournament last year, if you want to call it
that, and it's machine pitch. And the batters
get an unlimited number of balls. Three strikes,
you're out, but there's no walks. There's no
four -ball walks, and if the pitch gets past
the batter, which most of them did, it just bounces
and rolls to the backstop, and the coach has
a bucket of baseballs right there next to the
pitching machine, and you just go for it and
have a good time. So that's what most of these
kids are used to. They're not used to this new,
you know, this is almost like a step up into
the big leagues for them. Actual, like, baseball.
So, that was how things were supposed to run.
But Friday afternoon, or Friday evening, actually,
I still had not heard from my UIC yet, as far
as what games I would be working. So, I reached
out to them. I said, what? What's the plan for
tomorrow? And he sent me a text back, says, I'm
all set for tomorrow. I'm looking at some Miners
games next week for you. Okay. Nameless to say,
I was a little ticked off by that. Last year,
I worked two games opening day. They only had
three, and I worked two of them. I worked the
middle game, which was the minors, and then I
worked the second majors game towards the end
of the day. And, you know, I've literally, this
league is the only baseball that I umpire. This
is it. I've umpired almost two full seasons for
this league under this same UIC. And opening
day of this year, I'm getting completely shafted.
Huh. Okay. Okay. And it seems like he wants to
try to bring some new umpires in. Okay. I can
see that. We can always use more people. But
that just kind of... Kind of irritated me a little
bit. And then he sends me a text back a couple
of minutes later and he says, I might need help
tomorrow if so -and -so doesn't show. But I won't
know if so -and -so is going to show until like
30 minutes before first pitch tomorrow. So I
text him back. I said, look. I was planning on
being there anyway. So. I'll be at the field.
Just as a spectator. But. If you need me. I'll
have all my gear in the truck. Just let me know.
Hey. I need you for whatever game. I'll go to
the truck. Suit up. And you know. And we're.
We'll roll. I kid you not, not five minutes later,
he sends me a text and says, I knew it. So and
so just bailed. Can you help? Yeah, absolutely.
What games am I working? Well, so and so was
planning on working all of them. Yeah. The first
thing that popped into my head was, do what?
Now, mind you, this is before I knew. All I knew
at this point was there were going to be five
games. I didn't realize that the three minors
games were only going to be two innings. I found
that out the next day when I got to the field.
So I had no idea that those were only going to
be. doing in games I thought they were going
to be full games and he's working all five games
oh boy but I said yeah I'm I'm in so got to the
field and I I found out the night before that
I was going to be working with Darren Darren
is you know like I said he's my mentor You know,
real nice guy, good umpire, very knowledgeable.
And, you know, I told him straight to his face,
if I could work every game with you, I would
absolutely do it in a heartbeat. And he said
the same about me. So, you know, and there were
a couple of times over the last two seasons that,
you know, there were times I wanted to quit because
I didn't really think I could do it. And he's
the one that, you know, oh, well, you know, I
got a game to work. Yeah, I want Daryl to work
the bases for me. Okay. You know, especially
that first season, there was a time I flat out,
I was so close to quitting. I even told my UIC,
I don't think I can do this. Give me some time
to. To process this. And see if I can actually
do this. And a couple days later. He sends me
a text and said. Hey I know. You're kind of down.
You're thinking about it. But. I have an opening
for a bass umpire tonight. Working with Darren.
And he specifically asked for you. So you know
what. Okay. I'll do it. Obviously. He sees. Something.
You know, if he's willing to specifically ask
that I work with him. So, anyway. Got to the
field. Met up with Darren. And, yeah. I ended
up working the plate for the first game. With
Darren on the bases. And then we switched uniforms.
Switched gear. And I worked the bases for the
second majors game. And then switched back. And
worked the plate for what ended up being two
minors games. The third one ended up getting
canceled due to a pretty good rain squall we
had come through. Yeah, we were darn close to
losing the field. So it's like, you know what?
The two managers got together. One of them wanted
to play. The other one was like real hesitant
about it. So they just decided, no, you know,
both. teams had already played one game that
day with the format that they had set up so it's
not like nobody get a chance to play so everything
was good we just called that one um yeah one
a couple of things with with that day um even
though we're not required by rule anymore to
look at Batting helmets, bats, catcher's gear,
all that kind of stuff. We went ahead and did
it anyway. And the reason that we did it was,
first off, none of the coaches knew anything
about the new bat rules with regards to the consequences.
Of a batter stepping into the box. With an illegal
bat. And the injections that take place with
that. Nobody knew. This was actually one of the
things. And I'm sure some of you. Are going to
start screaming at me. For doing this. I actually
went over that specific rule. At the plate meeting.
For all of the games I worked that first day.
Even when I was the base umpire in the second
majors game, Darren and the coaches went over
everything that they had, normal plate meeting
stuff, and then Darren asked me to explain to
these two managers this new rule, just so everybody's
on the same page. And every single manager that
I told that new rule to and explained it to,
when I mentioned your player is ejected and you
were ejected, Every single person's eyes got
as big as the baseballs we were playing with
that day. They were like, whoa. Okay, we'll keep
an eye on this. Because none of them knew. And
even Darren didn't know. Until him and I were
doing our pregame, and I was talking him through
some of the new rules, like jewelry is allowed.
You know, you can put stickers on batting helmets,
you know, and all that stuff. And then I explain
the new bat rules and you can't have thumb guards
or choke up knobs or anything like that. And
if they get caught during the at bat, then they're
gone. The manager is gone. An adult base coach
position is lost and all this stuff. You know,
I tried not to make the plate meeting into a
rules clinic. which I know a lot of umpires swear
don't do. That's not what the police meeting
is for. But this was something that I felt needed
to get out there just due to the consequences
of it. And that is the biggest thing. If an illegal
bat comes out, player steps in the box with it,
we realize it's illegal, and I invoke these penalties,
and the manager of the team has absolutely no
clue what rule I am talking about, how does that
make me look? To be perfectly honest, it makes
me look like an asshole. Oh, really? You're throwing
me out? For what? What rule are you talking about?
Oh, well, it's a new rule this year. Well, yeah,
one that you just made up, Blue. I can just see
that whole thing going sideways in a hurry. you
know summarize that rule everybody understood
it everybody was kind of like blindsided by it
um but that was if there was only one thing they
walked away from that plate meeting remembering
it's that so that's a good thing in my opinion
um so yeah we worked uh Ended up working the
four games. First game, had the first home run
I'd ever called. Bottom of the first, kids are
slamming the doors again. Bottom of the first,
second batter, second pitch, cranked it out over
the right field fence. Had the first intentional
walk. You know, every game you go out, you're
going to see something new. You're going to learn
something new. And those were a couple of new
things for me. Another one during the second
majors game where I was on the bases, we had
a batter that decided to bunt with two strikes.
And where do you think that bunt went? Yeah,
it ended up foul. Batter's out. And the batter
had no idea why he was out. Oh, boy. Yeah. So,
personally, I think that was something that,
you know, coaches could have got with parents
and players and whatnot during the offseason.
And, you know, maybe. Held some clinics or whatever
and went over some of that stuff. Because this
kid truly had no clue. And the coach just walked
over and went, yeah, you're out, buddy. You know,
if you bunt with two strikes and it goes foul,
it's an automatic out. That's been a baseball
rule since, like, there was a baseball rule book.
Yeah, had a good number of things that I'd never
seen before, stuff I had to call. Overall, another
good day, another good learning experience. The
two minors games that we ended up being able
to play, yikes. Absolute walk fest. But again,
you got catchers that have never caught before,
pitchers that have never pitched before. Didn't
even reach the plate before they hit the ground.
And that's just something that's going to take
time. Yeah. So worked a few more games throughout
the week. Worked some majors games, worked some
minors games. Actually went over the field that
we normally have the minors games at. We have
gotten so much rain up here in Maine. Yes, I
know that rhymed. We've gotten so much rain up
here in the last couple of months, honestly,
that I was talking to one of the managers and
he went by that field the other day and he says,
there's like still six inches of mud in the infield.
It's not playable at all. We're going to need
like a solid week of no rain and sunshine before
we can even do anything with it. So they're scrambling
for fields. I ended up going over and playing
at a school over in the neighboring town. Which
was awkward a little bit for me. Because I actually
attended this school in 8th grade. And I had
done softball in gym class on that field. So
it was kind of strange walking onto that field.
as the plate umpire and looking around, and then
I started thinking about it. Here it is, 2025.
I went to eighth grade at that school from 1999
to the year 2000. It's been 25 years since I
set foot on this particular field. That was crazy.
That was real, real strange. But had a good game.
Had an out -of -town team come in and play one
of our minors teams. You know, good game by both
teams. Fairly, fairly equally matched. But, yeah,
got that one done. And then the other night,
I'm recording this on Mother's Day, actually.
Friday night, I worked with an umpire that I've
never worked with before. And he's a real nice
umpire. But when you think of, like, picture...
A Little League umpire. You know, or just a rec
ball umpire. Picture what it looks like in your,
what this person looks like in your head. That
was this guy. He had the charcoal gray pants.
He had sneakers. Not even plate shoes. Sneakers.
With the Velcro metatarsal guard on his shin
guards. That went over the top of his sneakers.
He had the single black ball bag. He had the
quarter zip pullover. That was like the almost
navy blue. With the red, white, and blue bands
around. The cuffs of the sleeves. And around
the waistband. The big. Like. For those of you
that. Go back this far. The big Steve Urkel.
Glasses. The big. Thick black rim glasses. His
mask. Had the excess. Strap. Just. Flailed out
there. It looked like Albert Einstein's hair.
Just. The typical. Typical, like, rec ball umpire.
That's about the only way I can describe him.
Again, real nice guy. I liked working with him.
You know what? I'd work with him again. I would
have no issue with that. But that's... As soon
as he came walking up, I'm just looking at him
going, Oh, dude. Boy, do you look the part. Oh,
man. You know, and like with me, I've got all
the tails for the straps on my mask. I've got
the Hump Life harness for my Force 3 mask. But
I've got all the extra tails. I've got them electrical
taped to the harness. so they're not flying out
everywhere gives me a nice clean look i've got
you know obviously the the pants when i'm working
the plate i have two ball bags one to keep baseballs
in the other to either keep used baseballs in
or to keep a bottle of water or two in that way
i don't have to go running back you know over
to the fence every time i need a drink You know,
if there's a, you know, time is called or we're
between innings or something like that, I can
just reach in my ball bag, grab a bottle of water.
Good enough. You know, and then if I have to
wear a, you know, a pullover or something, you
know, I run the black. I've got the black pullover.
I've got the black jacket. That's large enough
to accommodate the chest protector. Not a plate
coat, but an actual full zip jacket that have
just the white stripes on the sleeves. My black
umpire shirts have the Little League patch on
them. That was another thing that I thought maybe
it was just this particular league. They didn't
have time or didn't realize it was a rule or
something like that. None of the players' uniforms
have the Little League patch on the left sleeve.
None of them. But this game that I worked on
Friday, we had a team come in from a town like
30 or so minutes away, and none of their uniforms
had a Little League patch on them either. Could
have swore that was actually a Little League
rule, and I... Looked it up, and it is. Some
people think, oh, well, that's just for tournament
time. You've got to have the patch. No, it actually
says right in the rulebook, regular season and
tournament. But anyway, that's why I'm not a
member of the board of this league. So that pretty
much sums up my first week. Still got some bruises
on the left leg. I have gotten hit in that leg
a grand total of four times so far this week
working the plate. Two of the hits, oddly enough,
both on different days, but both in the exact
same spot. And the first hit. I took in that
spot Saturday. Was just starting to feel better
too. And then I took another shot. Right in the
same spot. It's like you've got to be kidding
me. So yes. I am looking into some thigh protection.
I don't know if I'm going to go with the Force
3. The Force 3 tights with the Kevlar plates.
I love how everything. is, oh, well, you know,
it's the greatest thing out there. It's got Kevlar
in it. Well, that's great. I'm dodging baseballs,
not bullets. You know, I really don't think I
need Kevlar in my chest protector. I don't think
I need Kevlar little plates for thigh protection.
I think just like a plastic plate would be perfectly
fine. I don't understand the big push on Kevlar
all of a sudden. But you see that even outside
the baseball world. Oh, this has got Kevlar in
it. This has got Kevlar in it. This has got Kevlar
in it. Whoop -de -doo. I mean, maybe Kevlar does
things for materials, you know, other than just
make it bullet resistant. I don't know. But it
seems like... Everything these days, that's one
of their selling points is it has Kevlar. So
now that the first week is over, where do we
go from here? That's a damn good question, to
be perfectly honest. There is still mass confusion
as far as the schedule and what... Because the
schedule, the game schedule is always changing
because we keep getting rain and having to postpone
games or move games to a different field or stuff
like that. And then, of course, you've got to
start moving umpires around. So it seems like
every single day this past week, I have gotten
a revised schedule as far as who's working what
games. One of the problems is the gentleman that
I worked with on Friday. He is from another town
and he has another person that assigns him games.
So now my UIC has to get a hold of the other
UIC for this other town. coordinate to see if
this umpire is available to work this game and
it's and then you throw you know other events
into the mix like i can't work a game uh tomorrow
on monday because it's my youngest daughter's
birthday so sorry guys And then the other UIC
from the neighboring town, the one I was just
talking about, apparently he's kind of down and
out for the foreseeable future because of a family
emergency. So now it's difficult to get a hold
of this other umpire to see if he can come and
work games with us. And it's just crazy right
now. It really is. Like I said, things are changing
every day. And it's just nuts. So we'll see.
We'll see what happens. Hopefully I will. Have
some answers by the next episode of the podcast.
Because that will be about a month away. So we
should be almost close to wrapping up the season
at that point. I apologize for getting this one
out a little bit late. I was trying to kind of
aim for the beginning of the month. Beginning
of May for this episode. But obviously the season
is upon us. And you start working games. And
by the time you get home, you know, it's 8 at
night by the time I get home. And, you know,
really, I just want to eat dinner, wash up, and
go to bed. I really don't feel like doing an
episode of this podcast at that point. Which
is why, like I said, I'm doing this one on Mother's
Day. Don't tell my fiance. She'll probably kill
me. Anyway. Yeah, so that is it. So that brings
us to our question of the month. I haven't heard
any feedback on the question of the month, so
hopefully you were enjoying these. You know,
I'm kind of a big proponent of continuing education.
And, you know, I think this is something good
just to really get your brains thinking. Maybe
some unusual situations that you don't see very
often, or maybe you've never seen. Just to get
you thinking about it, and if you have to dive
into the rulebook to figure out the answer, go
ahead. There actually was one that I posed the
question the other day to the Umpires of Little
League Facebook group. If you are on Facebook
and you are a Little League umpire, I would highly,
highly, highly suggest joining that page and
that group. A lot of very, very knowledgeable
Little League umpires on there. People ask great
questions. But this particular one, and this
is not the question of the month. I'll get to
that here in a second. But I want to pose this
question to you also. You know what? I will make
this a question of the month. Why not? I'll save
the question I have planned for next month. So,
let's just say the top of the third ends with
the third out. Strikeout. It really doesn't matter.
So, the third out is made. The defense runs into
the dugout. The visiting team runs out of the
dugout onto the field to take defense. And it
is at this point that the visiting team decides
to change pitchers. Going to go with a different
pitcher. So obviously that player gets one minute
and up to eight warm -up pitches. Right? That's
pretty standard. But now let's say during that
one minute, Time frame. The pitcher has never
pitched before. So one of the coaches notices
that, you know, he's having some trouble with
his delivery. So that coach goes out to the mound
during this one minute and gives this pitcher
a little bit of instruction at the mound on how
to deliver the ball. Would this count as a charged
defensive visit? I will let you chew on that
one for the month. Like I said, I posted this
same scenario in question to the group over on
the Umpires of Little League Facebook group.
And it's been almost 48 hours now. And they still
can't even come to a consensus on whether this
would be a charged visit or not. A lot of them
are saying it is a charged visit because technically
the inning starts when the first warm -up pitch
is thrown. Others are saying it wouldn't be a
charged visit because that's the time that the
pitcher should be doing warm -ups. and it's not
technically part of the inning, but I'm also
still not going to allow it. And, you know, there
are some people that have, you know, brought
up, well, this rule says this, and then they
post a screenshot of the rule, and the screenshot
of the rule does not show what they just claim
it shows. So... Yeah, there's still really no
consensus on that. And this group, if somebody
asks a question, once the question has been answered,
comments get turned off. Well, like I said, it's
been almost 48 hours, and the comments still
have not been turned off on this one. It's still
a running... A running question, basically. So,
yeah. That is about all I have got for this episode.
So, thank you all very much for listening. Again,
any ideas for future episodes, questions, comments,
anything of the sort, bluecrewdiaries at gmail
.com. Send me an email. Thank you again for listening,
and I will see you on the diamond.