[DG]

Originally posted by His High Holiness
All;

I once asked myself this same question so of course, I did a survey of umpires. I found that about one third of NCAA umpires had actually played NCAA ball. I am sure that nearly all umpires had played some level of organized baseball but I did not ask that question.

However, I can assure you that it is important to make the coaches believe that you played baseball at a high level. How you are perceived is as important as the quality of your calls.

Furthermore, to be a good umpire, you need to understand advanced strategies. This may not apply at the JV level on down, but at the NCAA level the players are too fast to be adequately covered by the two man system. Only an umpire that can predict the next play will survive.

Here is a test question to gauge what you know. A college AD (D-3) told me that he used this question when interviewing coaches. If they did not know the answer, they flunked:

Normally on a fly ball to the outfield with less than two outs, the runner at 1st (and perhaps 2nd) go halfway to the next base to see if the ball will be caught. The runner at third almost always tags up and is ready to go.

With less than two outs, name a situation where the runners at all bases always tag up and are ready to go?

You will rarely see this at anything below good varsity baseball, but an umpire needs to be ready for the runner tagging at first. I'll let someone else answer the question. When you are on a field and you see a player tagging up at first waiting for the catch in this situation, you will know that they are properly coached.

Peter

I would think any long ball to the outfield, fair or foul, where the fielder might catch it and fall down would be one good time to tag up on all bases.