The Next Generation of Pros

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by WhatWuzThatBlue
That's probably because you never had to work guys who can consistently throw a 90 mph cutters on the oustide corner or deuces that buckle the knees and end up just hitting the inside corner.

Unless I'm mistaken, the athletes don't make it a point of throwing the ball at you in basketball and football. Watching an excellent curve ball develop in flight or tracking a tailing/rising/sinking fastball is much tougher than spying linemen holding.

Your assessment would be completely wrong. If Bob is an umpire on a football field, he is dodging 200-300 pound players that will do more damage if they hit him than a baseball being thrown at 100 miles per hour. Also a football umpire is being used as a pick play with tight ends running routes and you have to be careful not to get in the way when a running back is coming up the middle and you have no pads to protect yourself. Getting hit with a baseball is not that bad considering you have a bunch of padding in most places and the higher you work you are not likely to get hit with a baseball.

Secondly, a plate umpire only has to watch a baseball being thrown by a pitcher for a couple of seconds. A football official is watching several players in a small area for several seconds and you cannot watch the ball to do your job. A basketball official has to watch 10 players in an even smaller area and we do not get the luxury to stop after a second or two and wait for the next play. The action for the most part is constant and the clock does not run when the ball is obviously dead. As a plate umpire if a batter swings and hits the ball, I do not call anything. I can go up and down the court several times and make 20 decisions (which will not bring a whistle).

Now for some it might be a harder thing to work the plate, but working the plate is not as big of a chore as working a basketball game or football game in my opinion. Also, if I am working the bases it is even less of a struggle. And a football and basketball official has to fight to get into position to make a call. I have never had to fight hard to get into position to call a pitch.

Peace