Pro Camps and Age....

[jpc2119]

This may be posted elsewhere on the board, and for that I apologize, but anyway here is my question to all of you...

I am 20 years old, and have been umpring various levels (little league through DII College) and have been told by coaches / other members of my board that I should go to one of the pro schools and try to get a pro job. I have also been told that the older you are, the less chance you stand of being one of the 25 from each schools send to the PBUC.

Sooo do I go to the camp this January and forgo my last year and a half of college or do I wait until i graduate and go to the camp when I am 22? If being 20 rather than 22 makes a big enough difference, I don't see how I can turn it down. However, if I don't make it, I've got to go back to college (until I try it again the next year). Also, if I do make it and something happens like a strike or I get hurt, I have no college degree.

Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated, and Happy Thanksgiving.

JP

[Carl Childress]

Originally posted by jpc2119
This may be posted elsewhere on the board, and for that I apologize, but anyway here is my question to all of you...

I am 20 years old, and have been umpring various levels (little league through DII College) and have been told by coaches / other members of my board that I should go to one of the pro schools and try to get a pro job. I have also been told that the older you are, the less chance you stand of being one of the 25 from each schools send to the PBUC.

Sooo do I go to the camp this January and forgo my last year and a half of college or do I wait until i graduate and go to the camp when I am 22? If being 20 rather than 22 makes a big enough difference, I don't see how I can turn it down. However, if I don't make it, I've got to go back to college (until I try it again the next year). Also, if I do make it and something happens like a strike or I get hurt, I have no college degree.

Your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated, and Happy Thanksgiving.

JP

Stay in college.

An umpire I've trained since he was 17 went from USSSA 11u to NCAA in three years. This past summer he called 96 games in the Canadian-American League, an independent pro league using three umpires.

He was the only umpire in the League who had not been to pro school.

The first weekend in November, we went to the North Texas Umpire Clinic, Chief Clinician Jim Evans. Three of the four instructors were from the Academy.

"Hey, you're good," was the standard comment. "You goig to the Academy next year?"

His reply: "No, 08. I'm going to get my degree first."

To a man, they said: "Terrific!"

Javi will be 22 when he goes to Florida. But if things don't work out, he will have his degree in hand.

It's better to have and not need it, than to need it....

[Tim C]

I will offer the following:

1) Jim Evans and crew will tell all candidates to finish college first if it is the critical issue in deciding to go to camp. They have done this for years. One of the regular posters here son went to an Evans 5 day camp and asked the same question.

This 20 year old had been working high school varsity baseball since he was 16 years old and is a playoff level umpire at 19 and 20 years old.

They told him to finish school as there would still be plenty of time for a professional umpiring career.

2) This year "may" be the most difficult year at school. No one yet understands the entire impact of the elimination of several minor leagues and fall schedules. While all umpires have been rehired (or not) there is still major shakeout on defining just how many umpires will get shots after this winter's schools.

This is a real good year to take a step back, go back to college and then work on the critical skills that can get you a job (see: "Acadamy Timing").

Tee

[JJ]

Finish school. This is a (pardon the pun) "no-brainer". When you look at the actual numbers that actually get to MLB out of the minor leagues, you stand a much better chance of that 6-figure income coming from a profession other than baseball.
On the other hand, you're only young once, and there are things you should do before you become tied to real-life obligations (job, house, spouse, kids). Of course, 20 or 22, from where I sit there isn't any difference - except that a 22-year old with a degree in his hand has already demonstrated the work ethic that they love in umpiring. A 20-year old dropout, on the other hand....
Hone those umping skills for a couple more years. Get more comfortable handling situations and looking at balls and strikes. Hang out with others who have gone to the umpire schools and REALLY pick their brains for anything that will give you a leg up once you go. Enjoy college! Not everyone who wants to go to college gets to go to college, so savor the moment. Explore your interests outside of baseball, and who knows? One day when you decide to hang up the umping gear you might have an exciting, challenging, rewarding, and satisfying career right in front of you.

JJ

[Edited by JJ on Nov 24th, 2005 at 06:24 PM]

[jpc2119]

That's for all the input guys, college was what I was leaning towards (as I only have a year and half left) and I was just looking for re-enforcement. What I'll do with degrees in Political Science and German, well that's a whole other question...

[kbaerslt]

I would say stay in school. I will let you know that PBUC did hire 2 guys in their 30's if I am not mistaken this year and a hand full in thier late 20's..

[Diamondgal]

I have to say that I really appreciated JJ's advice. I think we can all say that there have been times in our lives when people will encourage and even tempt us to jump into a new job or some other challenge that we could be really good at if we did it. I also think that it is very important at these times to do the things that will be the most beneficial for us in the long run. So I agree...finish college first, attend pro school second and for heaven's sake do it before you are married with children!

[DG]

Originally posted by jpc2119
That's for all the input guys, college was what I was leaning towards (as I only have a year and half left) and I was just looking for re-enforcement. What I'll do with degrees in Political Science and German, well that's a whole other question...

If your college does not have a guidance department perhaps you should start your own research into job opportunities.

http://www.salisbury.edu/careerservi...calScience.htm

Stay in school. Aspire to work the highest games you can work and if you still have the itch to try to become a major league umpire after you graduate, then make that decision then, not now.

[dddunn3d]

I've read all these replies, and they do have good advice. But the really important question to ask yourself is: "Will today's decision lead to future regret?"

Like I always tell my kids: Always do you best at anything you try, for if you fail you know you have done so by your own merit. No one should expect of themselves that which is beyond their capability. However, if you fail without really trying, how will you know what your capabilities are? How will you know with any certainity what you could have been? Regret stems from not knowing the answer to these questions.

[Texas Aggie]

I agree with JJ: finish college. While its one thing to take a semester off and go to a pro school, you need to be prepared to finish school whatever you do.

I started officiating basketball at 21, then stopped about 27, finding other things to do with my time. I'm back several years later, and have added football, but you don't want to get in a situation where you are 30, are either tired of umpiring or its clear you won't be in the bigs, no college degree, married, and needing something to support you.

Are you taking all the summer/mini-mester classes you can to finish school as early as possible? Consider that first. There will always be umpiring school, and I seriously doubt one or two years will make that much of a difference.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally posted by thomaswhite

Ah, congratulations on your acquired expertise! But I have sad news for you if you expect that the move up the proverbial ladder is one that is based upon accomplishment. Sadly, only partly so.

The politics of making the Majors is much like that of holding superior public office, all too often who you know and much like the last election of Prez Shrub, the voting booth is fixed! May the best licker of rears win!

Ugly, Truth is.

So if you choose the gamble, lest first you know something of the odds.

Poor.

Jeez, you're a real ray of sunshine. Go back under the rock you came from, and as you say , quit foisting your sorry opinion on others. If you think the last election was somehow "fixed", you're a bloomin' idiot.