JimEvans Desert Classic

[Dave Davies]

Ok, just got back from Evans Annual Desert Classic. About Roland; he works for Ray Leuty, Jim's Academy Director. Ray DID find 14 copies of the Annotated in a newly found box. They WERE sold for $65. What Roland stated wasn't intended to mislead anyone. You just weren't given all THE information. All of the Annotateds are, indeed, gone. There are NO immediate plans to reproduce any more of them, either on disk or hard copy.

This Union/Umpire/MLB business is still not over. Nothing will happen until the Arbitration process is concluded.

It's POSSIBLE that the resigned umpires are, indeed, done. Or maybe not. It's POSSIBLE that the new hires could be demoted. Or, maybe not. Probably not.

Which way is the training gonna go? Discussed previously.

This years Desert Classic drew 84 students, 7 or 8 of which are from Japan. It was highly successful. The classroom work was done at The Hampton Inn, in Peoria, Az. The mechanics portion was conducted at the Mariners facility across the street. An outstanding facility!!

A lot of the students had a Youth/LL background, others, adult and college backgrounds. A couple of the students were 16 years old. Some of the older chaps were in their 60's.

In regards to communicating with the Academy, When it moved from Austin, Tx to Peoria AZ, the whole system broke down. They were supposed to be in business on the 12th and were still having problems when I got there on the 15th.

You're probably thinking, "Jesus Christ, this guy is a Jimmy disciple/fanatic." Well, yeah, I am. An example of Jim's work ethic: The Class starts at 8a and continues until dark most days with a 45 minute lunch break. After the training day, Jim disappears for awhile to eat, recharge, meeting with his instructors, whatever. He then will search out students, his friends, instructors, whoever, to just talk basebal rules, mechanics and game management with them. An example: Jim was taking me to the video room to show me his training tapes. Our path took us through the main lobby where a lot of the students hung out. That was it. He got onto his imaginary stage and started performing. The students loved and so did he. He is a passionate man. I got the message; I went back to the motorhome (The Batterman Hilton) and spent the rest of the evening with some of his instructors.

This note is too long already. If you want some more stuff about Jim's Academy or the Arizona Fall Ball Season (where the high strike zone was employed), let me know. These games were umpired Major League Umpires, for the most part and they were all evaluated by the veteran ML Umps.

Dave Davies

[GarthB]

Dave:

I would enjoy hearing more about Jim's and other's opinon on Sandy's call to call a "book zone".

By the way, have to agree with you about the Mariner's facilities. The Hampton Inn and the Mariner's facilities were the sites for the ABUA camp I attended in 98. They ran their operation similarly (in regards to the hours, 8:00 to dark and then class meetings after dark.)

New question: Jon Bible once wrote in a Referee article that he felt some of us attend too many camps. He gave three or four as a maximum figure, I believe. After that, he felt the law of diminishing returns took over and that some umpires became camp junkies. I thought this was an interesting comment coming from one who owned and operated a camp. Thoughts?

GarthB

[Dave Davies]

Garth, I didn't know that Jon made those comments. In my opinion, he is absolutely correct.

A light background; I attended the week long LL clinic in '90. I was overwhelmed. I did it again the next year and learned a hell of a lot more. I did it again in '92 and pretty much learned nothing new. Evans Desert Classic in '93 was my next step. A whole new World opened up. I was, nonetheless, overwhelmed. Attended again the next year and a learned a whole lot more. Attended twice more in '95 & '97; learning curve was minimal. In 1998, I made the grand commitment and attended Jim's 5 week Academy for Pro Umpires (Like I was gonna get a job at 55 years old). This was a different World. I learned an incredible amount. Would I atend again? Absolutely NOT!!

My appearance at this year's classic was simply that, an appearance. I visited and socialized with some friends, watched some of the training and did some minor evaluation of some of the guys in my organization.

Jon's assessment that more clinics is not necessarily better, makes sense. Learning rules and mechanics is one thing; perfecting game situations and management is the final and necessary step. That final step can be introduced in clinics but cannot be perfected without true game situations.

I'll open up a new thread in regards to Alderson's implementation of the high (book)strike zone.

Dave Davies

[L.G. Dorsey]

Dave,

Thanks for your thoughts. I have sent my deposit in for the FL classic in January. Ray Leuty confirmed that my check had arrived although I haven't gotten anything official yet. This will be my first real clinic after 9 years of umpiring LL to HS. I have done some checking and although it would be easier for me to go to the Sun Belt Camp in Charlotte (3 days in Feb)because it's only about an hour from my house, I think Jim's camp is amuch better value. I am hoping I'll learn a lot and like you try and return in a few years if I feel I need more work. I am limited in career potential by my real job, but I'd like to go as far as I can.

L.G.