Which PRO School?

[lawump]

Unfortnately for you, you won't be able to attend the greatest umpire school of all time, the Brinkman/Froemming School. Greatest of all time because the Brinkman/Froemming School placed more umpires in pro ball on even years when the average temperature in Florida during school was 75-degrees or higher and a National League team had won the previous World Series...then any other school.

Seriously...Jim does have a reputation among the pro guys as being more "rules-oriented" with more classroom tests.

Harry has a reputation of being more on-the-field oriented.

I will also add...I've been told (to my face by a MLB umpire) that Harry has a reputation of telling students that "if they come back next year they might make it," when in reality they have little to no shot at ever making it.

I've also been told stuff about Jim, but I don't want to be sued for defamation.

[TCump84]

Well, Even though I am a Harry's Grad this past year, i will try and be as honest about the schools. I was priveleged enough to attend PBUC evalutaion this year and got to talk to some guys from Evans.At Harrys, you do umpire live games as well as camp games. They told me that they umpired all camp games and had a range of 800-850 test questions . At Harrys, we took 25 tests of about 10 questions each. Also, they spent about 5 hours in the class each day, to our average of about 3. I know that I had a blast, learned more than I ever thought possible, and like the other guys on here I do reccommend finishing your degree. I hope this helps, and which ever school you choose just work hard and Good Luck.

Travis

[PAT THE REF]

Thanks TCump84,

I am planning on it. During the PBUA, what did they have you do? Drill type stuff? Officiate real games? mock games?

Thanks,

[JIGGY]

Originally Posted by PAT THE REF

Thanks TCump84,

I am planning on it. During the PBUA, what did they have you do? Drill type stuff? Officiate real games? mock games?

Thanks,

The PBUC eval course is 11 days- there is "classroom" each morning followed by college spring training games all day long. It is designed to be an EVALUATION course, so it is not geared towards instruction very much. If you made it to Coco, you should already know what you need to know.

Again...I would encourage you to talk directly with Harry and Jimmy. Ask them the tough questions (i.e. I hear your school doesn't do real games Jim, why is that?) they WILL have the answers. I will tell you that you are forced to work harder at one of the two schools versus the other; that is not a bad thing at all.

[PAT THE REF]

It seems that Harry's school is more laid back and a small class size then Evans. Therefore, do you have a better "chance" to make it to the PBUA evaluation?

Just my $0.02

[mrumpire11]

Originally Posted by PAT THE REF

Thanks TCump84,

I am planning on it. During the PBUA, what did they have you do? Drill type stuff? Officiate real games? mock games?

Thanks,

PAT...They are real games, either high school or college (naia, d-3, juco). There are a couple days of on field instruction where they modify some umpire school mechanics. You also spend a couple afternoons in the cages. Other then that, you work about 6-8 live games and evaluated on your performance. Every morning you spend about 1-2 hours in the classroom going over different situations and proceedures. The evaluators also go over some notes from the previous days games.

With the school aspect, Harry's instructs using both live games and control situations. While Jim's only spends timie with control situations. Whoever you ask is going to be biased to the school they, or someone they knew went to. Gather as much info as you can about each, and make your choice. Just remember to go into it ready to learn, neither school has the time to waste with students who "know it all."