[UmpJM]

fwump/Mike,

I believe you are missing the point of those who, on occasion, make disparaging remarks regarding "LL umpires".

By way of analogy, I am not a "real" coach. While I've never coached an "official" LL team, the highest level team I've ever coached is 15U Travel ball. While it's been quite a while since I've coached on a 60' diamond, I've never coached a team that played on a 90' diamond. (The last four years, my teams have played on an 80' diamond.) So, for all intents and purposes (or is that "intensive porpoises"?), I am a "LL coach".

For me, coaching is an avocation that I enjoy and put a lot of time & effort into; but what I don't know about coaching probably vastly exceeds what I do know about coaching. And yet, the people whose children I coach generally consider me a very good coach, are delighted to have their children play on a team I am coaching, and are amazed at how much I know about baseball. Having said that, it would strike me as ludicrously self-delusional to think that I was "good/real" enough to coach a HS Varsity (or JV, for that matter) team.

Don't get me wrong. I could do it tomorrow. I would "get through it" and survive. And, I am confident that there are countless Varsity/JV HS coaches across this great country of ours who are not doing as good a job as I would do - tomorrow. But, that would not make me a "real" coach. Because I am also confident that there are countless JV/Varsity HS coaches across this great country that I am not even in the same league with. Probably not even the same game.

As I moved from a 60' to a 70' to an 80' diamond as a coach, I was continually amazed at how little I knew about coaching the game at the new level I had moved to. Much like parenting children, you don't know what you don't know until you are put in the position of having to deal with it. And you cannot be good at it until you HAVE dealt with it - and then, only if you ARE good at it.

Though I personally have no experience to back this up, I suspect umpiring is much the same. And I believe this is in the neighborhood of the "point" being raised in the "real umpire" posts.

If you have not had the experience of moving through the progression of "levels" of umpiring, neither you nor anyone else knows if you are a "real" umpire. If you have moved through that progression you may or may not be a "real" umpire; you may not know yourself. (Don't kid yourself that having "done" it and survived makes you a "real" umpire.) But, I assure you, somebody does. If you have progressed, & have become a "real" umpire, choosing to umpire "kiddie ball" does NOT detract from your "realness" - it's simply a personal choice as to whether you so choose or not.

No special kudos to those who so chose, no condemnation for those who choose otherwise.

I have seen two people who post in this forum umpire baseball games (I was NOT coaching). They both looked like "real" umpires to me. Occasionally, I get an umpire who looks pretty "real" to me at a game where I am coaching. When I do, I think it makes the whole game better for everyone.

Stop worrying about who thinks you are and are not a "real" umpire & just do everything you can to become one. It's not about the level or the size of the field or the age of the players - it's about the umpiring.

Of course, I'm just a dumb "kiddie ball" coach, so I could be completely wrong about all this.

JM