The Amateur Baseball Umpire Home Page

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This website is maintained only for archival purposes. In May of 2006 the developer retired from active umpiring in order to deal with several critical health issues. He is happy to report that while he is back to full health, umpiring will no longer be part of his activities. You can follow his current path by visiting http://perthtowncrier.com
Over one year since I was able to post anything to the site, today, April 25, 2004, the first new article was posted to the new web home and server. I must apologize to Epic Software who sent me a copy of their College Baseball Umpire Mechanics and 2003 NCAA Baseball Rules Clinic CD to review last summer. It has been a long battle to get the site functional again. Hopefully, a little bit of the battle has been won.
Many long term visitors will now that it has been impossible to update my web site with any regularity for the past year or so. There were several reasons for this including an overload in my daily job/work scheduling, and many problems with disk space at the ISP level. Starting in mid-March I have taken control of my web site and am slowly making the changes needed to bring it back to life. I have to emphasize slowly since I am now running the web material from my own server. There are going to be numerous small and some not so small interuptions as I figure this thing out.
I have been beseiged by spam mail! How many emails? An average of 480 messages per day! The one way you can be certain to contact me is through the automated comment form located at here. I am trying just about every spam blocker on the market, but please be patient. Often your emails sent tagged as spam accidentally.
Finally something I can recommed for umpires interested in a computer program to look at mechanics! Check out my review of Epic Software's first offering Interactive College Umpire Mechanics 2002 They also have a NCAA points-of-emphasis disk available for $4.95 and a new interactive Baseball Mechanics disk which I am in the process of reviewing.

Went back to the Florida Classic taught by the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring. I cannot say enought about this top-notch professionally run school for amateur umpires. A review is on the way.
This web site has come close to being shut-down numerous times over the past few. It has come under vicious hacker attacks. VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: Everything on this site is offered FREE-OF-CHARGE! One of the most recent attacks bounced visitors to another site and requested them to enter their credit-card numbers before reading information from the site. You will NEVER be asked for a single penny to read anything from this site. You will NEVER be asked to become a member, or pay a fee, or receive an email from me that you have not requested.
If you want to know why recent new postings have been few and far between there are simply two reasons: 1) It has become a major occupation simply to keep the site online, free from hacks and damage and 2) I am currently working two jobs, one that involves writing computer code all day. Coming home late at night and sitting down at my home computer is one of those things far from my mind at the current time. Keep checking back.
Finally something I can recommed for umpires interested in a computer program to look at mechanics! Check out my review of Epic Software's first offering Interactive College Umpire Mechanics 2002

If you have fifteen minutes to spare it would be worth your while to browse http://www.rulesofbaseball.com. There you can read about Rick Roder's offerings and the ways they can help improve your umpires. Rick's goal has always been to provide umpires with the literature they need off the field to make them rules-confident on the field. I have a copy of the sixth edition of his re-organization (written with Chris Jaksa) of the rules of professional baseball sitting beside my computer and have found it a valuable aid to working through interpretations.
Rick Roder is an independent rules consultant to the Umpiring Department of Major League Baseball, and a Triple-A Umpire Observer for the Commissioners Office of MLB. He and Chris spent fourteen years developing a rewrite of baseballs Official Rules, which was used as a textbook when teaching prospective professional umpires at Joe Brinkmans Umpire School. The book is called The Rules of Professional Baseball: A Comprehensive Reorganization and Interpretation. Recently, he incorporated the confusing rule differences of the NFHS, NCAA, and NAIA into the rules manual, resulting in an invaluable guide and supplemental text for amateur umpires.
Many of the files have been repaired. Most of the downloadables have been virus-scanned and restored. Several of the recent reviews are missing after a recent restoration was required. I will be working on this over the next few weeks but currently that directory is not upload accessible on the server so several reviews for this season are not availble at this time. Regular visitors will notice that the umpire instructor's clinic has been removed. Hopefully this will only be temporary. Most of the files were destroyed or rendered unusable.
The files which were part of the Umpire Clinic were removed after having been destroyed by a hacker attack. Simlarly the EOUA evaluation forms are constantly being hacked.
If you are not checking in regularly with the two main umpire discussion forums then check out The Umpire.org Forum and The Official Forum - Baseball
The much sought after "Manual for the Two-Umpire System" (written by Dick Nelson) printed by the Umpire Development Program is difficuly to obtain lately. Ray Leuty informs me that the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring has copies still available at $15.00 each plus a few dollars for shipping. Contact Ray at jimsacademy@earthlink.net. This book is a must have on your book shelf.
The Umpires Resource Center has a Message Board that is well worth dropping in on each day. Take a moment and visit.
Another site worth visiting is the baseball section of The Offical Forum
For the past eight seasons my son has been using a unique maple bat known as the "Tom Cat" The bat is sanctioned for use in the Major Leagues so keep your eyes open for it. The progress in his swing and power compared to aluminum or ash bats has been outstanding. I highly recommend it to you!
"Mr. Ump" Cece Carlucci has redesigned his exceptional custom-made umpire equipment to use the latest in materials. The result is a considerably lighter chest protector. Cece is also strongly recommending a product called "Tannery" for maintaining his equipment. The Tannery is a cleaner and protectant formulated especially for leather and vinyl. For more information call "Mr. Ump" at (909) 674-2935.
Contributors Welcome. If you are in a writing mood why not think of contributing your work here? I am only too glad to receive and post quality contributions.

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