Rookie Umpire

[UMP25]

Now I would never say that, would I?

Let's just say that more than one person there isn't what--or who--he says he is. This somehow seems to be a rather common thing about some Chicago area umpires. Take the gentleman who talked his way into the Northern League by introducing himself as "John Doe, former Double-A crew chief." (name redacted)

I saw this guy work a preseason Northern League game this year and thought, "There's no way in hell that this guy even attended professional umpire school." Because of my contacts in MiLB, I was asked to find out if this guy was who he said he was. He wasn't. He never even attended either of the two schools. Justin Klemm of PBUC verified he never was an MiLB umpire.

Of course, all this should have been obvious when he was crying on the field after an argument with a manager over balls and strikes. (I kid you not. The guy was crying after the manager of the Schaumburg Flyers got into a big argument over balls and strikes, threw his cap at this umpire, and more. And no, Skip was never even ejected.)