The umpire I spoke to just finished The Umpire School. He cited 30 students and 14 who were invited to attend PBUC Evaluations. Their Facebook page quotes the same number.

The Wendlestedt School forum states that they placed 14 in PBUC Eval as well.

Please elaborate.

They were incorrect when compared to the numbers indicated in the aforementioned NYT article.

Fine. I was told a firsthand account of The Umpire School saga. I am proud of my friend's achievement and opportunity. He told of 14 students from his class of 30 being chosen. The Wendelstedt forum features some gripes about them also getting 14 out of 120. If Jim Evans' school also produced 14 from 117, those young men are also to be congratulated.

My friend said that PBUC anticipated having 36 openings. If each school pushes 14 to eval, there will be 6 who will leave unhappy, it seems. If they have more than 36 assignments, good for them. I truly could care less about numbers. I prefer to congratulate those who succeeded and praise The Umpire School for doing, what looks like percentage wise, an incredible job.

What??? How dare you dispute information found in the NYT! After all, it is the source most often cited by our president, the Left, and... :D

I predict a reincarnation: the JEACU.

Evans will use his connection with Dick Runchey to provide college umpires. The five-week school and the Classics will be replaced by twelve week-log clinics given around the country. After a decade-long grandfathering period, only Acad Grads will be eligible to work Omaha.

Then the NCAA will buy it and change the name to Arbiter Umpiring Training Services.

You and/or your friend are mistaken. Evans will also send 14. Percentages has nothing to do with it. Each school was asked for 14 regardless of size of class or past success in training. PBUC has always asked for the same number from each school. They have been careful to not show favoritism, evn though more Evans grads move on to a contract that Wendelstedt....at least in the past 12 or 13 years.


Check out which school the last five umpires promoted to MLB attended. Check out how many current MiLB umpires attended which school.

Not a bad prediction. I've said elsewhere that if he changed it to a two-week class and offered three of them over the 6 weeks, I'd look into going. Getting 5 weeks off at work is impossible; two weeks is doable.

I don't doubt it. What will happen, though, to all those MiLB Umpires who quit/are released and find themselves working post-season NCAA? After all, so many of them work the upper echelons of D1.

I envision the NCAA setting some year as a cutoff. After that, they don't care if you're Tony Thompson, Jim Schaly, Jon Bible or Perry Costello--do their training or you can't be considered for post-season play.

I'd be happier if they made the rules test closed-book, and assignors actually used the results as one indicator of who knows WTF they're doing. A vast majority of the people I partner with during the year (I don't work D1) get together and take it as a group. That probably helps explain why I have to bail out so many of them during the year when they screw up rulings.

Well, if they're taking it as a group, it's not that easy, because each person has a different set of questions. What I don't like about the test is its inconsistency or contradictions with what's actually in the book at times. In addition, there are this year numerous typos and even some questions where the answers per the NCAA are completely incorrect.

And this is not coming from someone who has had problems with the exam. I've always passed it, oftentimes with superb scores.

They all print out their questions, exit the exam, and get together to help each other. Then they re-enter and type in their answers after the group meeting. I've been asked to join the group several times, but always decline. Anyone who can't pass it on his own isn't very bright. 80 on an open-book test is a ridiculously low passing score.

And boy, are you right about the NCAA's inability to put out a test where all the "correct" answers are actually correct. While I've seen that in past years, I'm curious: How do you know it's true THIS year when the answers have't been released yet?

On the flip-side, I've seen numerous people in my profession that aced the entrance exam but sucked rocks in doing the job.

Book smart doesn't always equal street smart. To truly see how well they handle the situation, have them do it on the field. You don't have four choices in those situations.

Let's just say one can tell if you read the answers carefully (among other ways one can "know"). Dummy me forgot to print my questions before I submitted the test this year, but there was one question where THE correct answer wasn't present, so I had to choose one of the 4 given, and I did so in mild disgust.

Sounds to me like MiLB found a perfect excuse to cut ties with Evans, something they were probably already looking to do. Same as when a company uses layoffs in a bad economy to cut employees they've wanted to anyways.

A two-week would be amazing and more doable for anybody who entered umpiring outside of their teens or early 20's.

What person with a "real job" can afford to give it all up to attend a 5 week school?

Answer: Not many people who could be very, very good umpires.