I'm still dealing with that cold, but it hasn't really limited me. This is way too important to let a little congestion slow me down.
In the cages this week we started working with live hitting. We've each only been thorough the cages once with this so far. It definitely takes some getting used to after having been in a very sterile umpiring environment for most of the past month, but I was fine after a couple pitches.
On the field, I finally got my first ejection yesterday...then three more today. So I've got that off my back. The first one was actually pretty fun. The runner missed first base on his way to a double. The defense appealed and I called the runner out. One of the instructors acting as manager came out to argue the call. It happened to be one of the head instructors who is about a foot taller than me. He was yelling and in my face (or above my face. whatever). In the end, I ejected him. Then he bumped me for good measure. But I didn't back down and overall handled it very well. Today I had a manager yelling at me about an interference call, a batter drawing lines with his bat, and a manager arguing balls and strikes. So they finally started throwing things at me. And it feels good.
Still, I've had some lapses. I messed up the positioning on a few of my plays in the field involving trouble balls. Obviously, I'd like to get everything right, but that's unrealistic. As long as I don't make any mistakes that cause me to miss calls, I think I'll be okay. Now I'm working on reading plays more quickly, which is happening as I get more experience with more games. I've got a couple more days to work everything out and make my last impressions. Hopefully it all works out.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Day 29
Well today was not a great day. I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat, so I've been popping zinc all day to try to fight off the cold before it starts. It rained almost the whole day on and off, so we went out to do our field work in the morning. I wasn't scheduled in either of the morning games. We did do cage work though and I wasn't nearly as good as I need to be. I was still generally fine, but I wasn't as sharp or as loud as I'd like to be. We tried to get in a third game after lunch. I was scheduled for the plate in the top of the first and the bases in the top of the second. The rain had soaked the field pretty thoroughly by then and I had the worry of falling down throughout my plate inning. I didn't fall, but at the same time, I was so careful about it that it messed up my footwork on a couple plays. Just about everyone was having issues with the rain though, so hopefully that won't count against us too much. In my base inning, we got one play in and it started pouring rain, so I called for the tarp and we were done for the day. (I decided it would be unwise to ask if we [the umpires working at the time of the delay] had to sit in the dugout for 30 minutes till we could officially call the game off) The rain is letting up now, so hopefully the fields will dry out by tomorrow afternoon and I'll be able to get in another couple games this week to leave a better last impression before they make their final evaluations.
Last week we had rain as well. I had two games on Thursday as we crammed in 3.5 games before the rains came. Those went alright, but I find myself searching for another level of intensity while keeping a clear umpiring head. It's very difficult to make yourself go through more intense motions, just for the sake of looking like you're working harder, while still remembering all your footwork and responsibilities. At least it's very difficult for me to do that. But I'm improving on that and hopefully that will be enough to convince them that I won't get eaten alive in pro ball . Friday it rained and Saturday I didn't get in as an alternate, so Thursday was pretty much the end of my week on the field. The most entertaining part was when I was in the field for my second game on Thursday. It was a set up play where the batter was going to freak out after striking out. My partner and I knew something big was going to get thrown at us, so we discussed our "rodeo clown" strategies before the game (that's where the umpire who isn't involved in the confrontation gets between the angry player/coach/manager and the umpire who is getting yelled at). Sure enough, after a called strike three, the batter slammed his bat down and started screaming all sorts of fun things at my partner. The batter was immediately ejected, which just made him even more angry. He got right in my partner's face, so I was sprinting in from the field. But one of the other instructors, playing manager, got there first and got the batter out of there. I was really hoping that they were going to let me get between the two angry giants.
In a related note, I still haven't had an ejection. I'm starting to wonder if they don't think I can handle an angry manager or something. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of ejecting people, but if they do something worthy of ejection, I don't hold back. As I'm watching the other guys work their games, I keep seeing times where I would eject people, but the guys working don't toss them. In any case, they'd better throw something at me this week or I might be in trouble for getting a job.
For a more positive spin on things, we turn to the classroom work. We took our written final exam on Saturday. It was 200 multiple choice and true/false questions. I missed 2 for the highest grade in the class. One I missed because I glossed over the 2-2 count which made a difference, something that I would definitely know if the play happened in real life. The other one I missed because I thought it was bases loaded, which would involve a force play on an appeal, but it was second and third, so there was no force and the run counted. In other words, if I wasn't careless, I would have gotten them all right. I wish that counted for something, but the tests barely matter.
On the non-umpiring front, a bunch of us got together and played some home run derby at a field not too far from here yesterday. It was a 300-foot fence down the lines (just a tiny bit farther than what we used to do on Stuart field), so I didn't get anything remotely close to a home run. Actually, only one of us managed to hit any over, so I technically finished in second place. A little while into our time there, we were getting kicked off the field by a coed softball team that had the field reserved for practice. We convinced them to scrimmage us instead. They weren't very good. I hadn't hit anything other than a wiffleball in a long time, so I was just hitting weak choppers to the right side. Of course, it doesn't help when they don't have a bat small enough for someone my size. Anyway, we crushed them in spite of my shortcomings and finished off the day with another round of home run derby.
Also, tonight I did my laundry and the manager of the laundromat gave me a box of candy canes.
Last week we had rain as well. I had two games on Thursday as we crammed in 3.5 games before the rains came. Those went alright, but I find myself searching for another level of intensity while keeping a clear umpiring head. It's very difficult to make yourself go through more intense motions, just for the sake of looking like you're working harder, while still remembering all your footwork and responsibilities. At least it's very difficult for me to do that. But I'm improving on that and hopefully that will be enough to convince them that I won't get eaten alive in pro ball . Friday it rained and Saturday I didn't get in as an alternate, so Thursday was pretty much the end of my week on the field. The most entertaining part was when I was in the field for my second game on Thursday. It was a set up play where the batter was going to freak out after striking out. My partner and I knew something big was going to get thrown at us, so we discussed our "rodeo clown" strategies before the game (that's where the umpire who isn't involved in the confrontation gets between the angry player/coach/manager and the umpire who is getting yelled at). Sure enough, after a called strike three, the batter slammed his bat down and started screaming all sorts of fun things at my partner. The batter was immediately ejected, which just made him even more angry. He got right in my partner's face, so I was sprinting in from the field. But one of the other instructors, playing manager, got there first and got the batter out of there. I was really hoping that they were going to let me get between the two angry giants.
In a related note, I still haven't had an ejection. I'm starting to wonder if they don't think I can handle an angry manager or something. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of ejecting people, but if they do something worthy of ejection, I don't hold back. As I'm watching the other guys work their games, I keep seeing times where I would eject people, but the guys working don't toss them. In any case, they'd better throw something at me this week or I might be in trouble for getting a job.
For a more positive spin on things, we turn to the classroom work. We took our written final exam on Saturday. It was 200 multiple choice and true/false questions. I missed 2 for the highest grade in the class. One I missed because I glossed over the 2-2 count which made a difference, something that I would definitely know if the play happened in real life. The other one I missed because I thought it was bases loaded, which would involve a force play on an appeal, but it was second and third, so there was no force and the run counted. In other words, if I wasn't careless, I would have gotten them all right. I wish that counted for something, but the tests barely matter.
On the non-umpiring front, a bunch of us got together and played some home run derby at a field not too far from here yesterday. It was a 300-foot fence down the lines (just a tiny bit farther than what we used to do on Stuart field), so I didn't get anything remotely close to a home run. Actually, only one of us managed to hit any over, so I technically finished in second place. A little while into our time there, we were getting kicked off the field by a coed softball team that had the field reserved for practice. We convinced them to scrimmage us instead. They weren't very good. I hadn't hit anything other than a wiffleball in a long time, so I was just hitting weak choppers to the right side. Of course, it doesn't help when they don't have a bat small enough for someone my size. Anyway, we crushed them in spite of my shortcomings and finished off the day with another round of home run derby.
Also, tonight I did my laundry and the manager of the laundromat gave me a box of candy canes.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Day 24
There's not much to report from the past couple days. I wasn't scheduled for a game Tuesday and didn't get in as the first alternate Wednesday. So now I'm back on track with the same number of games as most people. They've been throwing in a lot more arguments and ejections into both the camp games and cage work, but I have yet to be on the receiving end of anything more than minor chirping. At first, I thought this was not good because they aren't challenging me with tough situations. But upon further review, most of the arguments are a result of somebody messing up a call or somebody getting a call right, but then not being confident about it when questioned by a "manager." I haven't really messed things up, so I haven't given them many openings for confrontation. Still, I predict that in my next game, they're going to have some sort of scripted play where they force me to eject somebody. It's supposed to rain the next two days, so that might not happen till Saturday, but whenever it happens, I'll be ready.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Day 22
Another day, another camp game. I was in line for a potential day off from camp games, but I was an alternate for the second game and ended up having to work again. I'm one of the few, possibly the only one, who has had 5 games already. The craziest thing that got thrown at us was an issue with injuries and trips to the mound, but that was while I was over behind first and I wasn't involved at all, even though the instructor who was playing first base was trying to get me to jump in (clearly a trap). So while my partner messed that up, I stood by and watched, even as he ejected the manager. They also tried to trick us into calling balks on almost every play. We didn't call any, but they did succeed in having me be so focused on the pitcher that I only turned my head when he made a pickoff throw instead of stepping, then turning. I still technically made the right call, but I'll work on getting the footwork right next time. During my plate inning, I had a ball go out of play on an overthrow on a bases loaded hit to the outfield. I awarded the bases so quickly and thoroughly (scoring the runners who had already scored, like I'm supposed to) that apparently almost everyone (fellow students) watching thought I did it wrong at first. I inadvertently confused my partner with this as well, but he got over it. As for making my presence on the field bigger, I tried out the taller, wider mechanics and didn't get any complaints on that. One other thing that I'll be working on is making my steps more aggressive so that it looks like I'm working harder. As a runner, and a fairly efficient one at that, the idea of unnecessary motion isn't at all natural, but if that's what I have to do, then I'll do it.
We have our last written test tomorrow other than the final and possible pop quizzes, so I've got some more studying to do tonight.
And one thing I forgot to mention from last week: They started mixing in some "Good job" comments with the "Not a bad job" comments. This is encouraging.
We have our last written test tomorrow other than the final and possible pop quizzes, so I've got some more studying to do tonight.
And one thing I forgot to mention from last week: They started mixing in some "Good job" comments with the "Not a bad job" comments. This is encouraging.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Day 20
3 weeks down, 2 to go. This was a very very busy week with the beginning of camp games and 5 tests in 6 days. I'll try to update you on everything, but I'm obviously going to forget some things, so I'll just fill in the blanks in later posts.
On the testing side of things, we had 5 tests this week. On 3 of them I didn't miss any and on the other two I think I missed 3 out of 100 between them. Also, on 4 out of 5 of them, my cage group (K-Zone) had the highest average score in the class. We've been at or near the top of the class as a group on almost every test. The top scoring group gets some sort of prize at the graduation banquet (something valued "Much less than $10,000" as Jim says), so I guess that's something to look forward to. We've covered almost the entire rulebook at this point, so I don't think we'll have very many more tests next week. But that just means they're going to find other things for us to do. For example, today we watched a movie about bombing raids during World War II. Also, on the topic of our classroom work, the guy who sits to my left is dyslexic, and the guy on my right has ADD. Hilarity ensues.
As I mentioned briefly earlier, camp games started Wednesday. We run two fields at a time, splitting the class half and half. Between the two games, we get 36 umpires through in each set. We've been doing two sets of games each afternoon. Next week, we might start fitting in a third set of games in the morning once we are mostly done with the classroom work. With the way the rotation has worked, along with me being the first alternate today and having to work, I got my fourth camp game in before some people had even gotten their second one. My third and fourth games were my best ones so far, as I have continued to clean up my mechanics. I do still have one big obstacle. They basically told me today that I'm very technically sound. I recognize my responsibilities, get where I need to be, and make the calls. But I'm not very big. My volume has been good. Now it's a matter of making my presence on the field bigger. They gave me some tips on that for my mechanics and posture, so I'll work on that tomorrow off by myself in a park near here.
The other part of umpiring is plate work, as in calling balls and strikes. Up until this week, we have been building a foundation for calling pitches. When we've been in the cages, we were just calling 3 strikes and 4 balls on a right handed batter, then the same for a left handed batter. Then we started working in some check swings and adjustments for a batter crowding the plate. This week, we finally started calling real pitches. It took a few times through the cages to get used to actually calling the pitches from the new stance. Pitches just don't look the same as they did from my old stance. But I've adjusted and my pitch tracking today was pretty good. Also, today we added in another way of looking at our pitch calling. All of our cage work is video taped. Today, we still got 14 pitches, but they were all to a right handed batter and there were no check swings or adjustments. We were given sheets of paper with a strike zone printed on them. After every pitch, we marked down where we thought the pitch was. Then, we'll be able to look at the video and compare it to our sheet to see how good our strike zone is. I haven't had a chance to look at my video yet, but I did feel good about my zone today. One other thing I've had to adjust to is that the way a catcher catches the pitch actually matters. I've always been taught that the strike zone is established over the plate, not where the ball is caught. After all, the batter hits the ball out over the plate, not out of the catcher's glove. But in pro ball, they apparently get all pissed off when a pitch crosses the zone over the knees but is dropping and is caught really low and you call it a strike. (I had an issue with a couple of these in my second camp game. I called them strikes, they told me to call them balls next time.) So I'll keep working on that.
Other notes:
-I've never heard the term "Legalized Hooker" so much. (In the rules, Hooker is one of the batters in the batting out of turn examples. I think they did that on purpose)
-There was frost on my car a couple times this week. I know it has been even colder up north where all of you are, but still, this is not the weather I signed on for. It did warm back up the last couple days and is supposed to stay in the upper 70s for highs for the next week or so.
-With the lack of hard field pivoting drills, my ankle and knee are feeling a lot better. I've also been wearing my taller soccer socks this week to keep a little bit of compression on the legs and knees without messing with my mobility, so that has helped too.
-When abbreviating Pinch Hitter in my notes, I found myself writing it "pH"
-I've never been around so many people that chew tobacco
-I somehow managed to inherit a car-load full of riders. They used to ride in the mornings with another guy, but he was late a couple times, so they rode with me. I think they must have hurt the other guy's feelings or something because now he doesn't drive at all, leaving me with my new crew. One of them works security for ESPN, two of them are from California, and the other one is the only girl here that's about my age. (And to head off the inevitable comments, she's from Canada, taller than me, and engaged, so there's no interest there whatsoever)
-ESPN2 is a static POS here. So much for the Australian Open.
-Circuit City is closing all its stores? What?
On the testing side of things, we had 5 tests this week. On 3 of them I didn't miss any and on the other two I think I missed 3 out of 100 between them. Also, on 4 out of 5 of them, my cage group (K-Zone) had the highest average score in the class. We've been at or near the top of the class as a group on almost every test. The top scoring group gets some sort of prize at the graduation banquet (something valued "Much less than $10,000" as Jim says), so I guess that's something to look forward to. We've covered almost the entire rulebook at this point, so I don't think we'll have very many more tests next week. But that just means they're going to find other things for us to do. For example, today we watched a movie about bombing raids during World War II. Also, on the topic of our classroom work, the guy who sits to my left is dyslexic, and the guy on my right has ADD. Hilarity ensues.
As I mentioned briefly earlier, camp games started Wednesday. We run two fields at a time, splitting the class half and half. Between the two games, we get 36 umpires through in each set. We've been doing two sets of games each afternoon. Next week, we might start fitting in a third set of games in the morning once we are mostly done with the classroom work. With the way the rotation has worked, along with me being the first alternate today and having to work, I got my fourth camp game in before some people had even gotten their second one. My third and fourth games were my best ones so far, as I have continued to clean up my mechanics. I do still have one big obstacle. They basically told me today that I'm very technically sound. I recognize my responsibilities, get where I need to be, and make the calls. But I'm not very big. My volume has been good. Now it's a matter of making my presence on the field bigger. They gave me some tips on that for my mechanics and posture, so I'll work on that tomorrow off by myself in a park near here.
The other part of umpiring is plate work, as in calling balls and strikes. Up until this week, we have been building a foundation for calling pitches. When we've been in the cages, we were just calling 3 strikes and 4 balls on a right handed batter, then the same for a left handed batter. Then we started working in some check swings and adjustments for a batter crowding the plate. This week, we finally started calling real pitches. It took a few times through the cages to get used to actually calling the pitches from the new stance. Pitches just don't look the same as they did from my old stance. But I've adjusted and my pitch tracking today was pretty good. Also, today we added in another way of looking at our pitch calling. All of our cage work is video taped. Today, we still got 14 pitches, but they were all to a right handed batter and there were no check swings or adjustments. We were given sheets of paper with a strike zone printed on them. After every pitch, we marked down where we thought the pitch was. Then, we'll be able to look at the video and compare it to our sheet to see how good our strike zone is. I haven't had a chance to look at my video yet, but I did feel good about my zone today. One other thing I've had to adjust to is that the way a catcher catches the pitch actually matters. I've always been taught that the strike zone is established over the plate, not where the ball is caught. After all, the batter hits the ball out over the plate, not out of the catcher's glove. But in pro ball, they apparently get all pissed off when a pitch crosses the zone over the knees but is dropping and is caught really low and you call it a strike. (I had an issue with a couple of these in my second camp game. I called them strikes, they told me to call them balls next time.) So I'll keep working on that.
Other notes:
-I've never heard the term "Legalized Hooker" so much. (In the rules, Hooker is one of the batters in the batting out of turn examples. I think they did that on purpose)
-There was frost on my car a couple times this week. I know it has been even colder up north where all of you are, but still, this is not the weather I signed on for. It did warm back up the last couple days and is supposed to stay in the upper 70s for highs for the next week or so.
-With the lack of hard field pivoting drills, my ankle and knee are feeling a lot better. I've also been wearing my taller soccer socks this week to keep a little bit of compression on the legs and knees without messing with my mobility, so that has helped too.
-When abbreviating Pinch Hitter in my notes, I found myself writing it "pH"
-I've never been around so many people that chew tobacco
-I somehow managed to inherit a car-load full of riders. They used to ride in the mornings with another guy, but he was late a couple times, so they rode with me. I think they must have hurt the other guy's feelings or something because now he doesn't drive at all, leaving me with my new crew. One of them works security for ESPN, two of them are from California, and the other one is the only girl here that's about my age. (And to head off the inevitable comments, she's from Canada, taller than me, and engaged, so there's no interest there whatsoever)
-ESPN2 is a static POS here. So much for the Australian Open.
-Circuit City is closing all its stores? What?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Day 18
Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been really busy, and I still am, so this is going to be short and I'll get a longer update in over the weekend. Also, on top of all the things I have to do, I've been slowed down by left ankle and knee issues, so that's been fun.
Camp games started Wednesday. Of course, I was assigned to the first time slot as the first plate umpire. I was about as nervous as I've ever been for anything. I did alright, but there are still a lot of little things to improve on. Today, I once again got put in the first time slot behind the plate for round two of camp games. But today, I had Thursday on my side. I was much calmer and felt a lot better and more confident out there today. We have yet another test tomorrow, so I've got more studying to do tonight.
Camp games started Wednesday. Of course, I was assigned to the first time slot as the first plate umpire. I was about as nervous as I've ever been for anything. I did alright, but there are still a lot of little things to improve on. Today, I once again got put in the first time slot behind the plate for round two of camp games. But today, I had Thursday on my side. I was much calmer and felt a lot better and more confident out there today. We have yet another test tomorrow, so I've got more studying to do tonight.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Day 14
It looks like there's a flag on the play. Let's see what the call is. False start #3 Offense. Five day penalty. Retry
They decided they were jumping the gun a little bit with the evaluations. (Actually it was mostly our 70-something year old instructor who underwent heart surgery Thursday and was back on the fields Friday who decided we weren't ready yet) So instead of starting the camp games on Saturday, we're going to delay that by a few days. I think the idea is that even though we've already covered all the positioning material, we still have rules to cover and we could use extra review of the field work as well. I know that I could certainly use some extra days to review the footwork and responsibilities on all the situations.
We had another test Saturday. I got 30/30 on that. We also went over the details of what we're getting ourselves into. If you make it out of here and get selected to go to the PBUC evaluation course, you do that in March. While there, you umpire high school and college tournament games and are evaluated. They rank you and place you into minor league positions, depending on where the jobs are available. In your first season, you get $1900 a month in season, plus $20something per diem. You get small raises each year and for getting promoted to certain levels. The rookie leagues are fairly compact geographically, so they put you up in a condo and you commute to the games every day (they pay you a little bit per mile if you're the driver). In A and up, you get put up in hotels in whatever city you happen to be in. In AA they start giving you your own room instead of having a roommate. When you're going to be making the jump from A to AA, which is 2 man to 3 man crews, they usually send you to the fall instructional league to learn the 3 man system. At AAA, you are no longer evaluated by the minor league people. Instead, the major league supervisors start to look at you. If you're good enough you start to get fill in games and spring training games. And eventually, you hopefully get called up to the majors. So that's my potential career path.
For my off day today, I didn't do much. Last week I did the pizza buffet, so this week it was time to try the Chinese buffet. It was a small place, but they had decent food. Plusses: salmon, shrimp with lobster sauce, and water that doesn't smell awful. Minuses: chicken with broccoli instead of beef with broccoli, iffy fried rice and lo mein, and bad crab rangoon. Overall, I give it a 3/5. Tonight, I went to a laundromat for the first time. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-hispanic person in there. Since I'm fairly tan after being down here for a couple weeks, I blended right in. Everyone talked to me in spanish. One guy tried to sell me razors. Another guy complimented me on my folding technique. I'll definitely be going back there next weekend.
They decided they were jumping the gun a little bit with the evaluations. (Actually it was mostly our 70-something year old instructor who underwent heart surgery Thursday and was back on the fields Friday who decided we weren't ready yet) So instead of starting the camp games on Saturday, we're going to delay that by a few days. I think the idea is that even though we've already covered all the positioning material, we still have rules to cover and we could use extra review of the field work as well. I know that I could certainly use some extra days to review the footwork and responsibilities on all the situations.
We had another test Saturday. I got 30/30 on that. We also went over the details of what we're getting ourselves into. If you make it out of here and get selected to go to the PBUC evaluation course, you do that in March. While there, you umpire high school and college tournament games and are evaluated. They rank you and place you into minor league positions, depending on where the jobs are available. In your first season, you get $1900 a month in season, plus $20something per diem. You get small raises each year and for getting promoted to certain levels. The rookie leagues are fairly compact geographically, so they put you up in a condo and you commute to the games every day (they pay you a little bit per mile if you're the driver). In A and up, you get put up in hotels in whatever city you happen to be in. In AA they start giving you your own room instead of having a roommate. When you're going to be making the jump from A to AA, which is 2 man to 3 man crews, they usually send you to the fall instructional league to learn the 3 man system. At AAA, you are no longer evaluated by the minor league people. Instead, the major league supervisors start to look at you. If you're good enough you start to get fill in games and spring training games. And eventually, you hopefully get called up to the majors. So that's my potential career path.
For my off day today, I didn't do much. Last week I did the pizza buffet, so this week it was time to try the Chinese buffet. It was a small place, but they had decent food. Plusses: salmon, shrimp with lobster sauce, and water that doesn't smell awful. Minuses: chicken with broccoli instead of beef with broccoli, iffy fried rice and lo mein, and bad crab rangoon. Overall, I give it a 3/5. Tonight, I went to a laundromat for the first time. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-hispanic person in there. Since I'm fairly tan after being down here for a couple weeks, I blended right in. Everyone talked to me in spanish. One guy tried to sell me razors. Another guy complimented me on my folding technique. I'll definitely be going back there next weekend.
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