Rookie Umpire
 

I'm getting into my first year of umpiring baseball in Illinois. Anybody have any helpful resources, websites, or additional information that would help a rookie like myself. All help would be appreciated. Thanks,

Join an association, go to as much training as you can before the season.

Listen
 

Join your local HS Group

That's good advice. Get your chops with freshman and JV and your ascent will be more rapid. Listen to everything your fellow umpires say and nothing anyone else says and it'll go even quicker.

...or assigner if there is one. Some of us don't have this luxury and have to cold call schools.

Slow down, have fun, don't get in a rush.

I'll agree with what the first three have said: Go to all the training classes you can, and when you are there, listen to what your instructors have to say.

It probably will not take you long to find out who the respected veterans in your association are. Don't hesitate to ask them questions on the situations you encounter. All the experienced umpires I have worked with have been more than happy to talk umpiring with me and the ones you meet will be glad to do the same for you.

Good luck--I think you've made an excellent decision!

Welcome!
You probably want to get in contact with your state high school association to get licensed, and they can most likely give you information about officials associations in your area.

Other than that, read the rules and casebooks, and get as many games as possible (within reason, don't burn yourself out like I almost did this summer), and just keep improving every game.

Layer up, stay warm.

boboman,

All good advice in the posts above.

One opportunity you might want ot consider is a clinic being held in Wheaton this spring called "Blue School". They run six 3-hour sessions on Sunday afternoons from 3-6PM. Dates this year are 3/8,15,22,29 and 4/5 & 19 (consecutive, but they skip Easter). A bit of a drive from Crestwood, but at least the traffic tends to be pretty light on Sundays.

I have not personally attended (though I may this year), but I have heard very favorable comments from a number of acquaintances who have. The cost is $175 ($150 if you sign up with a "buddy") which strikes me as very reasonable.

In addition to the instruction, you might very well meet some folks from your area who could help you find an association or assignor who can help you get started working games in the spring.

You can read about it and find contact information here:

BlueSchool 2009

Of course if you're really serious about doing this, just go to the Jim Evans Florida Classic at the end of December:

Umpire Training Conducted by Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring

When I was in your shoes, I went to the Desert Classic and I believe it was the best thing I could have possibly done to get my umpiring career off to a good start.

Regardless, best of luck.

JM

Assuming you will be working high school baseball, you should be sure to attend an IHSA clinic. Clinics are classified as either Level One or Level Two. If you have never umpired baseball before, the Level One clinic would probably be the way to go. The Level One clinic covers most of the basics, as well as two - person mechanics. The IHSA recently made clinic attendance mandatory for all first year officials in a given sport. A list of upcoming IHSA baseball clinics can be found at the following address:
IHSA Officials Clinics

Get licensed with Illinois High School Association. Illinois High School Association
Even park district and travel ball want 'patched' umpires. On the IHSA site is a list of associations. Have fun!!

You live in Illinois...if you're anywhere near Davenport, Geneva, or Peoria get over to catch some Class A Midwest League games in the early spring. Two man system and you'll see first hand excellent mechanics, timing, positioning, and coverage from the young MiLB umpires looking to work their way the umpiring ladder in professional baseball. You can study their stance behind the plate, the angles they get to make calls on the bases, covering a steal (how they pivot and get a good angle), how both the umps READ and REACT when the ball is hit, how they carry themselves on the field etc. etc. You'll just learn a ton.
Two good umpire websites are SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL Online and Umpire's Resource Center
The first one has all kinds of news and tons of links to all sorts of umpire websites. The second one has Forums that are setup by subject, type /level of baseball, and there is a forum section specifically for new umpires.
Good luck in your first season...it'll be here before you know it.

You might want to start thinking of starting your resource library. PBUC's "red book", on two man mechanics, PBUC's blue book, (MiLB) The rules of Professional Baseball by Rick Roder, Rules Differences by Childress and if you have the bucks, Jimmy's new book on two man mechanics. And as mentioned above, if you can attend Jimmy's winter classic in Florida this month, it would be well worth it. Especially if you've never umpired before. No bad habits to correct, learn it the right way to start from a great staff.

You'll need a student loan.

I've always been amazed by guys who claim to teach professional mechanics and all when they themselves have never been to pro school and work pretty much high school ball and below.

Observe, observe, observe.

Ask many questions.

Why are you amazed?

Ump25,

I'm a little puzzled as to who the "guys" are that you refer to.

I have a printed brochure I received at an association meeting last week which features 3 Blue School instructors, 2 of whom are Brinkman School graduates (one in 1988, the other in 1990), one of whom spent six years as a minor league umpire.

Are you suggesting that they are lying?

JM

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.)

The number of sleazy umpires who lie about past pro experience is exceeded only by the number of rats who lie about past pro experience.

Indeed.

How about, "I was with the Yankees and the Tigers for eight years"?

And then you go home and look the guy up and he never even made a minor league roster.

Maybe he swept the clubhouse. ;)

All great information and thank you for it. Does anybody have any websites to some additional resources that I can read as I prepare for this upcomming season. Like most people, I learn better when I actually do something, but I would like to gain as much background knowledge as possible. Thanks,

What's more annoying...the rats lying about being a former pro player or the rat who "used to umpire"?

For me, it's the rat who "used to umpire"...umpire what? your son's little league game from behind the pitcher's mound?

If your doing high school go to ihsa.org and get info. on how to be an official. IHSA has free clinics that can be found on the website. I'd attend them before you pay $175 for Blue School. If you go there they would be talking about stuff that you would not understand. At the free clinics you could learn the basics. Also on the web site there is info. on local organizations that you can join. The only assignor that I'm aware of at Blue School assigns West Suburban Conference. Great conference but driving to games from Crestwood would not be worthwhile.

One time some guy was bragging about being the backup catcher on the Braves in the late-60s. Cool story. Except, he couldn't remember that Joe Torre was the guy he was backing up. Easy guy to forget, I guess.

We made him take his weak act to another sports bar.

google umpire manual
 

Read the following adobe.pdf file.
American Legion Baseball
http://www.baseball.legion.org/forms/umpiresmanual.pdf
Northwest Baseball
http://www.nbua.com/training/NBUA%20...s%20Manual.pdf
Massechusetts Baseball link to umpire manual
http://massbua.tripod.com/otherwebsites.html
GHSA
http://www.ghsa.net/files/GHSA%20UMP...MANUAL2008.pdf
Little League Rules
http://www.fcll.org/2008_Umpire_School_Rules_Manual.pdf



National Softball Association
http://www.playnsa.com/pdfs/2002umpiremanual.pdf
NCAA Softball
http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/cham...PreviewState=0
More softball
http://www.ncnsasoftball.net/Fast%20...0Mechanics.doc

No. Freaking. Way. :D Was it wrong of me to chuckle at that?

Hey boboman316...don't be this guy!;)

Crying
 

Just curious about the " former AA CC " who worked the NL S/T game. Did this non ejection happen during S/T or during the regular season?

My .02
 

Im going to agree that is the coach who "used to umpire" or "I'm an umpire too" that is the worst.......

They arent playing in the game so I could care less what their actual playing stats are or never were....

Was this serious, or some sort of very odd accidental posting ?

The Umpire's Resource Center part is seriousd. I think the ump.com part may have come from creating a link to ump.com without checking to see what it was (and it is a surgical journal).

As for the advice to go to all kinds of different websites I strongly recommend you focus on information available at nfhs.com.

As you will quickly find out there is a lot of difference between MLB, American Legion, NCAA and IHSA rules.

Learn the NFHS rules which pertain to all IHSA high school baseball games.

You will thank me later.

Good luck and dress warmly. :D

Kevin--Where did you find information about all minor league players. I know they have records of all the major league players in books and on the internet, but I did not know they have the records of all minor-league players on the net or in a book. I assumed there were some archived records of all the minor-league players at the minor league office in St. Pete, if you could get your hands on them. But I did not know these records were anywhere to be checked out on the net or in a book. Could you let me know where you found information on all the former minor league players? Thanks

My pleasure!

Go here: http://minors.baseball-reference.com/ You can look up anybody who played from 1992 on (work in progress).

Or go to the directory page: Minor League Player Directory - Baseball-Reference.com Just click a Last Initial and they'll give you a list of every minor leaguer with that initial, with a link to his record. The lists have an asterisk next to the name of each guy that made the big leagues.

Are you suggesting the guy who runs the Blue School is a liar and an umpire who cries if someone yells at him? Or are you suggesting that some of the Blue School instructors are fabricating their backgrounds and that is part of a larger Chicago tradition of false resumes and since the umpire who cried is from Chicago and the Blue School staff are from Chicago they must both be liars?

Fyi
 

The crying umpire is no longer working in the NL. I would find it puzzling if he were working as an instructor.

I beg to differ, for a new umpire starting out learn Organized Baseball Rules (OBR.) Everything starts from there. Learn the "Mother" of all rules and it's easy to apply the differences.

Well said! ... And with wisdom.

Advice for rookie umpires
 

Work on 3 things:
1) quality uniforms and equipment
2) field mechanics, signals and decorum
3) knowledge of the rules and its finer points