By Brad Tittrington
T
he odds of making it to MLB as a player are infinitesimally small — roughly 0.5% of high school players make it. The odds of making it to MLB as an umpire, even smaller — only roughly 3% of umpires who get a job in Minor League Baseball get selected to umpire an MLB game. Think of it this way — as of Aug. 5, there have been 20,969 MLB players who have ever played the game, and there are 1,200 players on the 40-man roster each year. For umpires, there are only 76 slots, and most umpires aren’t just working for a year and being replaced by those from the minors.
But each year, nearly 1,000 umpires descend upon one-day camps run by MLB to get a shot at making their dreams come true. They come from all corners of the United States, some internationally, and they come with varying skill levels, all with the hope of catching the eye of the development staff to get a shot at being selected for the full MLB Umpire Development Camp in Vero Beach, Fla.
This past July, on a warm Sunday morning, 168 of those umpires took to American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, to try to earn a coveted scholarship. It was the fourth of five free one-day camps held throughout the country this season, and it was the largest camp to date for the 2025 season. The allure of being inside an MLB stadium and taking that first step to attaining the dream of calling balls and strikes on the world’s biggest stage can be both exciting and intimidating.
Imagine going to a job interview with 167 other people, not really knowing exactly how many jobs are available. You are being watched from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave and you are put through the paces of multiple skill stations where former MLB umpires are dissecting everything you do. Those former MLB umpires include some of the biggest names to ever call the game — Jim Reynolds, Ed Rapuano, Charlie Reliford, Larry Young and Bill Welke, all of whom worked the World Series during their active careers and are now tasked with finding a new generation of umpires to start their careers. After four hours of showing off your skills, you leave the park hoping you did enough to potentially earn the shot at going to the full camp in January to embark on a professional career.
And to make things even more difficult, the Milwaukee camp was loaded with talent, according to Tyler Funneman, manager of umpire development and umpire outreach, and Reynolds, which made it that much more difficult to stand out. Those in attendance were put through drills to inspect their plate work and how they called balls and strikes. Many don’t realize that all minor league umpires working levels below Single-A must use the exact same ball-and-strike mechanics. Once they reach Single-A, they are given the freedom to personalize their strike calls. Attendees also run through a series of drills as plate and base umpires covering plays at first base, how to button hook and pivot on an extra base hit, and how to cover both ends of a double play at second and first.
“One thing I look for is how quickly can they take instruction and implement it. That is a huge thing for development reasons.”
It can be hard to showcase your skills in four hours when you are among 168 people and may only get one chance to show off your skills at each station. So, what exactly is it that helps one stand out and be noticed by those who hold your future in their hands?
“We have a really finite time at these camps to evaluate,” Reynolds said. “I think one of the things I look for above and beyond is athleticism. Their experience, not so much, but athleticism, their attitude, those are the kinds of things I’m looking for.
“One thing I look for is how quickly can they take instruction and implement it. That is a huge thing for development reasons. If I have someone who is athletic and seems to have a good attitude and they are taking instruction and implementing it — I’m not even talking about being perfect — this is what I need to look over and see. Someone who doesn’t have it quite right and then I look again and they have it. You have to be someone who is coachable and has the mental capacity to take instruction and implement it.”
During those four hours in front of the instructors, everything is regimented. It is reminiscent of the military in how the umpires line up to start the camp by simply calling ball, strike, safe and out. It is coordinated and in sync and it is the first time umpires have a chance to show if they have “it.”
“I had the unique opportunity to talk with a guy who is a sniper in the U.S. Army,” Reynolds said when asked about the military aspect of the camps. “He said, ‘I don’t care how well they can shoot before they get here, I’m teaching them how we do it.’ It is the same thing at these one-day schools. I don’t really care what they’ve done in the past, we teach it the same way we’ve learned. We are using building blocks to get them to the major leagues and be successful.”
After the four-hour on-field job interview, you wait a couple of days to see which of three emails arrives from MLB in your mailbox. You’ve either been told MLB is not interested in your services at this time, but you are welcome to attend another free camp to “try out” again; you’ve been put on a short list of potential candidates to receive a scholarship, but you haven’t been retained just yet; or you’ve been selected to receive an all-expenses paid trip to Vero Beach in January to begin the arduous road of making your dream come true.
“The week after the camp (we send out the emails),” Funneman said. “We try our best to get those out the following week so we don’t leave anybody in suspense. Some people may not realize that when the camp ends, the process begins. It’s not just day-of finalists and getting those out, it’s diving into those finalists even further.”
So, what is it like to be in front of those well-respected former umpires who now hold your dream in their hands?
“The instructional staff was unbelievable,” said Leo Dlatt, a 21-year-old from Lake Zurich, Ill., who is a senior at the University of Illinois and was one of the handful of attendees who received an invite to the MLB Umpire Prospect Development Camp in Vero Beach in January. “It is not every day you get to work in front of multiple World Series umpires, let alone big league umpires at that.”
Dlatt, who had previously attended a camp in Virginia before his freshman year of college, wanted to make sure he received an education before giving professional ball a shot. He started thinking about umpiring professionally during his senior year of high school. That itch stayed with him through his college journey, and he decided to attend the Milwaukee camp to scratch that itch. And receiving an invite to potentially make that dream come true made it worthwhile.
“I was definitely excited (when I received the invite email),” he said. “But also, it was just a little bit of reality. This is real. This is what you’ve been wanting to do and now you have the opportunity. Make the most of that opportunity.”
Brad Tittrington is an associate editor for Referee. He umpires D-I softball and officiates college and high school volleyball and high school football and basketball.
