Looking Back ...
Reflections on a Good Season

by Brent McLaren

For me, this year was a success. I was able to focus and be in the game with an intensity that I had not experienced before. All aspects of my work as an official seemed to be coming together each time I stepped on to the field. Was is just the years of experience starting to really show? Had my pre-season work on rules and positioning really started to paid greater dividends than usual?

Without a doubt the single most important positive change for me this season was working almost every game as part of a crew. A shortage of senior umpires, and a growth in the older player age groups expanded our need for crews to take these games. In the past we were able to assign two senior umpires to the single game that was happening that night. Now we found ourselves have to send three or more crews to games at these levels each night. Gone would be leisurely nights spent on the smaller, sixty foot diamond. This year would see me mostly working the larger diamonds with the significant increase in responsibility, demands and time that competition requires.

Working as Part of a Crew

From the outset it became clear that these two umpires there, not to simply do the game, but to get it right. For one umpire this season would mean a change from the external protector to an internal system. For the other, in addition to a desire to refine his knowledge of the rules, the essential concern would be running the rotations properly: and running it was to be!. Pregames took on a whole different meaning, and we often worked with the magnetic baseball board.

The benefits to working with the same partners became immediately evident:

Establishing a Working Rotation

We would alternate between plate and bases. It would be a simple matter, with one exception: we could ask the other to take the plate tonight for any reason. Sometimes it was just a matter of convenience, sometimes a health concern, sometimes a double header the night before with another crew. On the rare times when things switched we would just start flip-flopping all over again.

Working in rotation breeds predictability. It removes all guess work from the "do you want the dish?" pregame conference. We would show up with the clothing and equipment needed to do the job, not hauling bags of extra equipment upstairs to the dressing room just-in-case.

Establishing a rotation encourages purchasing the special pants and shirts needed to effectively work the plate. If you know you are working plate tonight and literally every second night throughout the season then there is incentive to own proper clothing.

Establishing a Working Agreement

Our guidebook was to be the three volume Baseball Umpire's Guidebooks published by Referee Publications. We would start simple: focussing on where we would be standing on every play and how we would be standing there. Gone were the days of a "standing set" when working the infield, every play would begin from the "hands-on-knees" position drilled into the professional umpire.

We decided we would run one consistent coverage pattern, notwithstanding working outside on the small diamond, this coverage would remain more-or-less consistent regardless of the field size. This rotation would involve shared fair/foul coverage, fly ball coverage, chasing trouble balls and a series of rotation signals, and we would signal our coverage possibilities before every play. We knew who had responsibility for making the call at each base and agreed to shoulder that responsibility fully. We discussed the balk rule at length and shared responsibility for calling the balk. In every case we would default to the Guidelines for assistance in working out a positioning.

A Crew Dresses Like A Crew

The plate umpire for the next game called the clothing. We each had the traditional powder blue shirts but the season would see us expand to pull-overs in light blue, navy and red. The shoes would be shined, the hats "official" and everything to specifications.

Again, working as part of a consistent team meant having the luxury to plan ahead. Being able to call the color when your turn behind the plate occurred became part of the "game" for us. It was usually the last thing the next night's plate umpire said as we parted company ... "navy blue tomorrow!"

Starting Like A Crew

At the start of the season both young umpires were reluctant to have a pregame plate meeting. A few games later and they took the plate conference with ease. They were no longer expecting the "senior umpire" on the diamond to take the starting moments. They developed a sense of control and authority right from the start that would set a tone for the coaches and players. There was no question about who was in charge, they were.

Opening the Avenues of Communication

Knowing the phone numbers of your crew members by memory is a unique experience but the other directions in which you discover yourself open to talking and sharing ideas . A level of candor develops. There is inside humor that can brighten even the dullest game without a member of either team being aware.

The value of shared "corporate" memory cannot be understated in officiating. When you know that you have to work together not just for tonight, but for thirty more nights, you will discuss finer points of your officiating. When a plate umpire you are working with for the only time this season fails to run down to third base to cover a play, you might overlook it and cover for the umpire's mistake. When you are working with that umpire tomorrow night, and every night thereafter you will address the situation.

Our post-game meeting became more important than our pre-game. Often the pre-game boiled simply down to reminding each other of last night's discussion after the game.

Finding Replacements

If working as a member of a crew has one drawback it is that finding a suitable replacement should you have to miss a game can be a difficult chore.

I remember one moment from this summer. I was working as a plate umpire on the large diamond and not with one of my partners. I had signaled him that with runners in scoring position I would be staying close to home. It was one of those unexpected plays: with runners on first and second and no one out everyone expected the bunt, but the bunt popped up about half-way down the first baseline. The charging first baseman trapped the ball just as it hopped and made a quick throw to third for a whisker close play.

Working with my regular partner, who would have been in "mid-C", the coverage would have been straight-forward. Clearing the catcher, "I've got the line, I've got the line!" I announced , set, signaled the fair ball and no-catch. The ball would have gone over to third and he would have made the call. I would have taken the play had it broken down and come home and could have taken any play that might have resulted at first if required..

As the dust settled I looked up to see the base umpire standing about 10 feet from the first base bag pointing at me and announcing "Your Call!" He believed, despite our pregame, that the plate umpire was responsible for every call at third base, and he only needed to worry about first and second base.

Any amount of pregame conference cannot prepare you for every situation you encounter on the ball field. You realize, as you work with a crew member, that together you experience more situations then you could ever discuss or develop strategies for with every game. The long term memory of situations, how they were handled, and the discussions that followed will serve the crew well as the season progresses.

Becoming Crew Chief and Mentor

When you become a crew chief or mentor to another official you enter into a level of officiating that demands you to push the edge of your game. As you accept the mantle of being a teacher you know that your actions on and off the field are setting a tone that will impact on more than just this game. You also begin to bring some new terms: words like partner and colleague.

A new pressure comes on your game: you want to be careful not to make a mistake. You want to see that outside corner a little better, be at the best angle, communicate that notch better. Being a positive role model for another official will send you back into the absolute basics of your game: recommending to another umpire not to move his head on the pitch is one thing .... making sure you are not doing it is another.

There is a different dynamic that develops as you work many games with another umpire. You learn to quickly read that umpire's body motions and can pick up clues that would normally distract or be missed. You become attuned to sound of the other umpire's voice. The need to yell disappears since, even over high noise levels, you can hear your partner's voice. You also have the opportunity to develop consistency in aspects of your game that you might overlook in a "different-crew-every-night" situation: handling confrontations or getting assistance.

"Good Game, Blue!"

It seems to mean a lot more when it comes from someone who has worked a season with you. The honesty that develops leads to the truth after a while. Sometimes the truth is not really what you want to hear, but it is what you have to hear. Tomorrows game will be a lot easier for everyone as a result.

It is important to realize is that you can have a bad game, and it happens to everyone at some time. Maybe it was a play, maybe it was a few pitches, or the middle innings. Working with a crew that has your personal umpiring interests as its prime goal breeds reassurance: that you will get it right, that you will get into position, that you will succeed. Your partners have seen you through the best of times and they know what you are like to work with over a long period of time. They will be the first to come to your defence, and the first to offer support if needs be.

If my season was the most personally satisfying I have had to date it is largely due to working for the first time as part of a crew. For those who strive to improve the level of umpiring within their community, I commend my experience to you.

..... written on 1 October 1999

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