Jim Evans Annotated Rule Book

[Dave Davies]

I talked to Jim last Month. Two of the subjects we talked about were the annotated and MLB Training.

As far as the training, I can't say a hell of alot. Jim would appear to be the front-runner. Questions to be answered: Would JIm's and Harry's schools be combined or eliminated? Would both schools be allowed to continue (I don't think so)? Would Jim simply be hired to organize and administer a newly formed Umpire school under the guidelines of MLB? If Jim ISN'T given a major role under the new regime, I would be extremely surprised. Warrens comments are remarkably prescient.

The Annotated. Jim has pretty much finished his project and is ready to distribute his work on CD. One problem. Because of advanced technology and the read-write disk, Jim's Annotated would almost certainly be copied and spread all over the World for free. Jim would make practically nothing. I suggested that he keep the Annotated in print format until there can be a way to prevent the CDs from being copied. He said that would look into it.

Eight more of the umpires in 62, my org., are attending Jim's Desert Classic this coming week. That brings us to 40 umpires having been trained by Evans. Anyway, I will be visiting our students, & Jim and his staff, especialy Ray & Jeri, the end of next week. I will certainly try to get some more information (probably nothing) and will relate it to this board.

Dave Davies