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2010 Little League Baseball Western Region Umpire's Diary
2010 marks the sixth year I have been a Little League umpire. I am also the president of a large community garden, Ocean View Farms in west Los Angeles which was somewhat how I got involved in all of this. Our garden shares a 14 acre property owned by the City of Los Angeles with North Venice Little League. In 2004, North Venice Little League hosted our local District 25 Little League Baseball All-star tournament, as well as the Section IV Little League Baseball tournament. Once the tournaments started, I would often walk over from the garden and get a hot dog and a soda from the snack bar and watch a few innings of whatever game was being played at the time. Having worked with then North Venice president, Paul Liske on several issues that we jointly faced with the city; it wasn't long before Paul suggested I would make a good umpire and mentioned that North Venice was always looking for volunteer umpires at their league. Having mulled it over for a while, I told Paul in January of 2005 I would give it a try. A few weeks later Paul introduced me to the North Venice umpire-in-chief, who gave me a dark blue shirt, a couple of rule books and loaned me a copy of the video You Make the Call. I read through the books a couple of times; watched the videotape and surfed the net a bit and that was about as much training as I got that first year! A few weeks later the UIC called me one night and asked if I would umpire a minor league baseball game the next day.
Boy, was I uncomfortable! Somehow, I managed to make it through the game without too many issues and ended up working about 12 more games that year for North Venice. At some point during that first year, I also met the District 25 UIC, Jessie Sanchez, and think I even ended up working a Minor TOC game and maybe a 9/10 or 10/11 All-star game or two. Most of my training was either "trial and error", watching who I thought were the more experienced umpires or maybe even having one of them give me a few pointers, once or twice.
I stuck with it the next year and probably worked about 20 games for North Venice and multiple post-season games including my first Section assignment. At the end of the 2006 season, Jessie offered to have District 25 pay for me to attend one of the weekend clinics conducted by the Western Region in San Bernardino. In January 2007, I attended my first Western Region clinic, the Weekend Rules clinic.
I continued to enjoy what I was doing and tried to continue watching other umpires and surfing the net in an effort to "improve my game." I probably did about 25 league games that year, a few more post season games then the year before and was asked by Jessie to be part of a four man crew at the State 10/11 baseball tournament. Shortly after the 2007 season ended, I decided, if I could get some vacation time, I would try to attend the Western Region Week Long Umpire School the following January.
In January of 2008, I did attend the Western Region Week Long Umpire School in San Bernardino. It didn't take very long to realize that I had wasted almost all of the time I had spent watching other umpires, and while I considered myself "O.K."; I didn't really know much about what I was doing those first couple of years. At the end of that week, I returned home absolutely and completely exhausted; but, also unbelievably exhilarated and excited for the upcoming season. The knowledge, training, instruction and camaraderie from Bill Carter, Fred McKeown and ALL of the Western Region instructors exceeded any and all of my expectations. As I started to put into practice all of the things that I learned during that cold January week, I started to think that I would like to apply for an assignment at the Western Region Tournament held each August in San Bernardino.
Although I applied in the Fall of 2008 for the 2009 tournament, I did not have any expectations of being selected; but this did not in any way diminish the enjoyment I continued to get from being a Little League volunteer. Jessie retired as our district UIC in January of 2009 and somehow I ended up with the job. I submitted a second application for a Western Region Umpire position in the Fall of 2009 and still had extremely low expectations of being offered a slot.
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Things were about to change...
December 16th, 2009 - Upon arriving home from work, I found an envelope in my mailbox with a Western Region Little League logo return address. Having read that I had been selected to umpire at the 2010 Western Region Little League Baseball tournament made 2009 the best Christmas I've had since I was about 10, the year I got a lemon-yellow Schwinn Stingray 5-speed Fastback. January 2010 - We get our first, of what we will learn to become monthly, letters from Bill Carter, the Western Region UIC welcoming us as Regional Umpires. In addition to informing us there have only been 485 Western Region umpires since 1971, he asks us to prepare our bios for the media guide, confirm our shirt sizes and lets us know we'll all be expected to be wearing Honig's Charcoal Grey umpire slacks. February 2010 - Our second letter from Bill introduces us to the line-up card used during the Western Region tournament, invites us to join the Western Region Little League Umpire Alumni Association, (although some of us are a little superstitious,) and gives us his everlasting request - Work as many Major games as you can this year! This second letter is followed shortly by a lavish PowerPoint presentation on how to "maintain" the line-up card.
Despite REALLY looking forward to opening day (February 20th) at my local league; my first three games are all rained out!
March 2010 - Knowing I'll be going to the Little League Congress in Lexington, Kentucky the following weekend, I finally get behind the plate for the first time on March 7th for a Major Softball game. Although I'm sure Bill meant Major "Baseball" games; it's my first action of the year and I know it won't hurt to start "tracking the ball." This will also be the only softball game I do this year.
Our third letter from Bill lets us know our jerseys have been ordered; Black with white trim, Pro-Blue with black trim and Cream with black trim. He also lets us know what color T-shirts we are expected to bring and includes a great story that appeared in the Fair Ball newsletter from an umpire that worked the Eastern Region a few years ago. April 2010 - Back from Congress and done with the rain, I'm in full swing at my local league, doing about three Major games a week; at least two, if not all three, behind the plate.
Our fourth letter from Bill confirms the tournament schedule, fills us in on the rest of our uniform requirements and reminds us of when we need to arrive in San Bernardino. May 2010 - With my local league regular season nearing an end, the anticipation for Western Region is starting to build. But I still need to get through all of the staffing for our District 25 Tournament of Champions and the District 25 All-star tournaments before I can put too much thought into San Bernardino.
May's letter from Bill is a lot of housekeeping. He introduces us to our "Umpire's Uncle." Someone who will help make our stay at the tournament more enjoyable and will also act as the "official" umpire photographer. We are all encouraged to bring flash drives to download all of the pictures. June 2010 - With our regular season and local league playoffs concluded, the one-week District TOC starts June 11th and most of our District All-star tournaments start at the end of the month. Despite all of the hassles getting umpires to all of the different tournament sites, the anticipation of San Bernardino is now really starting to build. Besides, I know all of my scheduling headaches will be over by July 15th, when we are done with all of our District tournaments.
June brings another fantastic PowerPoint presentation from Bill on the mechanics of the 6-man crew, which I'm guessing none of us have ever worked. July 12th 2010 - Only three more days of District tournaments - then the countdown will REALLY begin. After that it's just a couple of section games and a division game to stay sharp!
We received the last of our monthly letters from Bill today. A few last minute housekeeping details and our schedules for the first three days: a review (or introduction for many of us) of six man mechanics, checking team equipment, covering the ground rules, etc. as well as a little R & R time before the first game on Friday, August 6th. July 15th 2010 - All of our District 25 All-star tournaments are complete! My tally for the season so far, 44 games - more than half behind the plate. All Majors except that first Softball game and two plate assignments in the 10/11 Baseball All Star tournament. Only 19 days to go! July 19th 2010 - Three relatively painless section games over the weekend. One of them saw the left fielder for the visiting team go five for five with four homeruns and 13 RBIs. Pretty impressive! I worked exclusively on my timing, positioning and delivery as a base umpire. Feeling good at this point in time. I'll do one more plate assignment at a Little League division game next Sunday, July 25th. Only 15 days to go! July 25th 2010 - Getting ready to go meet the crew for our Southern California - North Sub-Division game today in Redondo Beach between San Dimas Little League from District 20 and South Sunrise Little League from District 30. We are all meeting up here before grabbing a little breakfast and then we'll all head down to the game together. I spent a good part of the past week gathering many of the little odds and ends I'll take with me to San Bernardino: a padlock for our locker, earplugs for sleeping in the barracks, gifts for the other umpires and the like. Only 9 days to go! July 26th 2010 - I felt really good about our Southern California - North Sub-Division game yesterday, both with myself and the fantastic job our District 25 crew (Bobby Machado, Tyronne Powell and Willie Eichenberger) did. No real controversial or crazy plays, but everyone was always in the right place at the right time. It was a nice, tight, back and forth game with South Sunrise Little League from District 30 pervailing 7 - 5 in 7 innings, good luck in the rest of the tournament. Only 8 days to go! August 2nd 2010 - I leave for San Bernardino tomorrow night after work! I spent the weekend completeing some last minute chores before I leave: a bunch of laundry, finalizing my gifts for the other umpires, getting a hair cut and gathering the few remaining items I'll need for my trip. Tonight I'll finish packing everything, so that tomorrow night I'll be ready to head out. Only 1 day to go! August 6th 2010 - THIS IS IT! After two days of meetings, reviewing 6 man mechanics and checking equipment; our first game is less than 3 hours away. I'll be the stand by/evaluator at the 9:30 game between Wyoming and Washington and then I'll be behind the plate at 4:30 for Oregon and Montana. First two days here have been fantastic. Can't imagine what it will be like now that we are ready to play ball.
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