Mentoring

[Ump20]

See Garth Benham's current interview with an umpire who does pro in the Northern League and also does games with his local association. He mentions three particular senior officials who helped him Chad says

I want to make sure to emphasize how important in my life those three guys were. I might not have stayed with umpiring at all, and for sure I wouldn't have gotten better and moved up without these guys. They were the greatest and I'll never forget them.

I am convinced, they convinced me, we all need mentors and it's the job of every experienced umpire to become a mentor. We owe it to umpiring. If we all help one or two other umpires to move up, or just become better, the individuals we helped benefit, the activity benefits and we benefit. I just can't say it strongly enough or thank those guys enough.

If you get anything down that I'm saying, get this down. This was probably the most important thing to happen to me in umpiring. And I hope it happens for everybody.

I had the opportunity at our association's annual dinner at the end of last season to say thank you to #92 - Joe Valenza. My first season was 1992 I had the privilege to be working my very first Connie Mack game on the same field as Joe. We worked a number of times after that. I listened to Joe because he did college ball and was one of our "senior guys". His pre-game required a note pad for all the "special mechanics". I had the bases that first game and Joe told me to "always look like an umpire" no matter what you are doing.

Joe was very surprised when I stood up to thank him this past year. He didn't realize the positive effect he had on me.

Any stories of people who had an impact on your officiating career or those you've helped along the way? If I posted this a few months ago I don't think there were too many responses.