Congrats Tim C!

Tim C was one of two umpires selected by the commissioner of the Portland Baseball Umpires Association to work Oregon's top classification state championship game.

Congrats Tim. My only advice: Don't suck!

[aceholleran]

Good for you, Tee.

Hope you have a nice 1-0, 90-minute special.

Ace

[Tim C]

Thanks Rei. I just hope I do as well as last year's plate guy.

Regards,

[Welpe]

Congrats, Tim! You work two man for the play offs?

[ozzy6900]

Congratulations, Tim! Give 'em HELL!

[mick]

Attaboy, Tim C !!

Originally Posted by msavakinas

my thought initially as well but after reading it again i think that their association (portland) got two slots in it out of the three or four and he was one of those two

3 man throughout the playoffs, including the state championship game in Oregon.

Our association gets 2 of those 3 spots every year because we service about 2/3 of the top classification teams in the state.

[FATUMP]

WOW, one association puts 2 out of the 3 umpires in the top game every year! where do we sign up?

[TussAgee11]

Congrats Tim... and thanks for the FED updates you give us throughout the year.

Originally Posted by FATUMP

WOW, one association puts 2 out of the 3 umpires in the top game every year! where do we sign up?

Hey, we also have a guy in the next level down, and a guy on the next level down from that. So, at least 4 guys every year from our association, and about every 4th or 5th year, we send a 5th umpire!

In the old days, the top game circulated amongst associations throughout the state. So, we used to send a whole crew, but only did that once every 4 years or so. I like this new system where you send the number of guys based upon how many of the schools you service at that level in the state. That also means that associations that only serve lower level schools don't have an umpire slot except at the level they service. Our association is by and far the largest in the state, and we service all levels for the 75 or so high schools we service.

It is indeed a very big honor to be selected to do the top level game! Generally speaking, only umpires with collegiate experience get the top two levels now.

[ODJ]

Originally Posted by FATUMP

WOW, one association puts 2 out of the 3 umpires in the top game every year! where do we sign up?

Of the 10 or so associations in the state, PDX gets 2 slots because of the population with the others rotating through. The associations nominate who goes. It's similar for all sports. Does take the politics out of it (sort of).

Tim, is it one crew of 3 working all classes? Salem or Portland this year?

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by msavakinas

my thought initially as well but after reading it again i think that their association (portland) got two slots in it out of the three or four and he was one of those two

Ah good point, I just need to read it better.

[David B]

Originally Posted by rei

Tim C was one of two umpires selected by the commissioner of the Portland Baseball Umpires Association to work Oregon's top classification state championship game.

Congrats Tim. My only advice: Don't suck!

Cool and should be lots of fun. But with playoffs, we always hope for a good game ...

What an honor!

Thanks
David

[Tim C]

P.S. When a school from your area plays a school from outside your area, do the schools from outside your area ever complain about two of the three umpires being from the association which services the other school? If one of your schools is in the final, does the third umpire work the plate?

Very important question.

The Portland Baseball Umpires Association is the only umpire association in the State of Oregon that is deemed "neutral' by the Oregon School Activities Association.

That decision was established simply by the large number of umpires we have and the large number of schools we cover. It is rare that one of the selected umpires would have worked more than one or two games of a team from our area that makes the final.

Even though we were considered "neutral" for many, many years we were not getting to work the plate of the final game IF a school from our area was in the game. The Oregon Athletic Officials Associaiton corrected that issue and last year "Rei" became the first PBUA umpire in many years to work a plate game in the 6A Final (yes what I wrote is accurate - simply because of the number of schools we work a team from our area seems to ALWAYS make the final so were missing a plate final every year).

This year IF the defending State Champion team (from Medford, OR) makes the final then our third member of the crew (he's from the Medford Group) could not work the plate and one of the PBUA guys will get the plate assignment.

Hope this all makes sense.

Regards,

[Tim C]

"By "top level" do you mean the largest schools? We have five classifications, and working the final in any of them is an equal honor. By the time you get to the finals, all teams are fairly equal in talent, and, as a matter of fact, one of the smallest schools is currently ranked 1st overall in the state."

Oregon has six levels (for baseball the two smallest groups are combined) of baseball at the championship series.

Every now and then we have team from a lower level that may be the best team. This usually happens when that team has a pure D-1 type pitcher and has been able to fill in the gaps around him.

Nothing should be taken from any team that makes the final. They are all deserving. Last year all five championship games were decided by one run.

"Why require college experience in a high school game? I meet that requirement, but I have some high school partners who are very, very good (better than some of my college partners), but do not have the time to devote to college ball."

It is not a requirement to work college baseball to work the tourney. It is most common, however, that the better umpires in Oregon are in a college association. Rei's point is that "normally" when you get this high in the playoffs that the nature of selection falls to better umpires and they are in a college group.

Trust me . . . every one of the college umpires that have been selected in recent years worked a FULL high school schedule.

"Why exclude an umpire from working a classification just because he does not work that classification during the regular season? Are the rules different?"

The Oregon School Activities Association and the Oregon Athletic Officials Association passed very strict rules about the necessary qualifications for state tournament officials.

The thing you might find interesting is the rules were made to assure that officials that worked smaller schools were insured to get fair treatment at tournament time. Some groups were sending "highly rated" officials to work state tourney games that included size and genders they did not work the entire year.

In Oregon an umpire must have worked games in the division he is selected to umpire at the finals. If I came from an area that did not have a 6A (Oregon largest sized schools) then I could not work the 6A Final. (It just happens that this year I worked ONLY games at the 6A level and that would mean I could not work ANY other game at the finals.)

If I am reading your tone correctly you don't necessarily care for our system.

It is better than what was in place before.

BTW, I do not work college baseball.

Regards,