Baseball
Anything But (Base)ic
Just as we can have rough days on the plate, we can have base games where it seems we’d be better off to flip...
Reducing Apparel Costs Works For Umpire Recruitment
The Fox Valley Blues Umpires Association (FVB) is a baseball umpires association in the Chicago metropolitan area which has been in steady growth mode...
Listen Up to Go Up
“Keep your mouth shut and listen.”
Although it sounds harsh, it might be one of the most important pieces of advice an aspiring umpire can...
Eye Didn’t Miss It
Umpiring a baseball game is full of visual challenges. Some are unusual and others are more common. In a recent game, the uninformed runner...
Catcher You Later
By Jon Bible
A long-standing topic of debate in baseball circles is how we should relate to catchers. There are several schools of thought.
I’ve heard...
Dead Ball Ground Rules Needed For Quirky Ballfields
Very few baseball fields are identical. While infields are all alike, size-wise, the shape of the outfield will vary and the alignment of outfield...
Trip Advisor
The emphasis on pace of play in both pro and NCAA has resulted in significant changes to the traditional rules on conferences to include...
Dig into a new DH
The NFHS Baseball Rules Committee opted for just one rule change during its annual meeting in June in Indianapolis. But it is significant and...
Collision Course
An area that has received a lot of attention in recent years from rules committees at various levels of baseball involves malicious collisions between...
Grab Those Borderline Pitches and Help Your Game
I once worked a college game with an umpire with the proverbial postage-stamp strike zone. It lasted three hours, 31 minutes, and featured as much head-shaking by pitchers and...
High Time to Talk Timing
U
mpires always stress the importance of good timing behind the plate (and on the bases, but that’s a topic for another day). But to...
Changing a Call
For many years, an umpire changing a call was considered a sign of weakness. The current thinking at all levels of play is that...
Progression of Responsibilities Helps Simplify Rulings
This past summer I had the opportunity to attend an evaluation camp for umpires looking to advance their collegiate careers. The camp schedule called...
Just Deal With It!
I
f umpiring were simply confined to ball/strike, fair/foul and safe/out rulings, it would still be a game fraught with disagreements about arbiter judgments, but...
Pre-Pitch Checklist For Improved Focus
Over the years, I found that the best way to stay focused and lessen the chance of a screw-up is to go through a...
Batboys
Where are all the batboys? What happened to them? And when did they disappear?
In this context, I’m referring to the little kids (usually but...
All Eyes Are On You
There are close plays all over a baseball field and in every game. Half-steppers at first base. Fingertips on stolen base attempts. Pitches at...
Where Was That?
By Jon Bible
Last season, I was watching an MLB game and the plate umpire — I forget who it was — was giving the...
A Major League Road to Fitness
“If you slow down, life will stab you on the back,” says Mackie Shilstone. “Disease will find you.”
It’s a strong message delivered to a...
Rungs of the ladder
In my time as a minor league and collegiate umpire and supervisor, I was often asked what umpires should do to move up the...
Always Assume You Are Being Assessed
For roughly the first half of my amateur umpiring career — which lasted from 1966-2016 — umpires could go about their business without having to deal with rating...
Balk This Way
In many cases, not much happens after a balk. The runners get to advance one base, a defensive coach may squawk, but all playing...
Use Fundamentals When Changing Field Size
We’ve all been there. It’s your night off. You’re settling into your seat to watch your kids or your friend’s kids play a game...
Do More, See More With Better Positioning
Does your association have “good umpires”? Certainly it does. But are there a few umpires acknowledged to be better than the rest of the...
