[kylejt]

A couple more things.

We started our Junior umpire program in 2000, with just some hope, and our fingers crossed. In my son's first game, he was on the bases, and I had the plate, he had a close call at third. The manager in the box did not agree with his out call, and came to me first. "Not my call, Boss".

Then he went to my son, and got a little animated. Calls from parents ensued, for me to help my son out. Nothing doing.

Now, before the season started, we had a signal for our Juniors for when they'd had enough. The coaches knew it, too. It was folded arms across the chest. That meant ,"I've enough, the next word gets an EJ". Sure enough, my son folded his arms, and the manager stepped back, and headed back to the dugout.

After the game, the manager approached us both. "Here we go" I thought.

"Young man, I still don't agree with your call", he said to my son,"but really liked how you handled yourself out there. Nice job."

That's when I knew we could make this work.

And this whole program has little to do with umpiring and/or baseball. It's all about responsibility, respect and dealing with tough situations. For kids this age, you just can't find a better vehicle to learn these lessons.


I always have three questions for my kids, when they come off the field:

What did you do right? (always start with something positive)
What did you do wrong? (then, bring them back down to Earth. They'll know, if they've been trained right, when they mess up)
What do you need to do to fix it? (give them something to work on for next game).

Try those after his first game.