2009 Fall Baseball Letter #15
- Details
- Parent Category: Umpires
ITEMS OF NOTE FOR FALL BASEBALL:
1. Check arbitersports.com for who your partners are for the game or games you are scheduled for during the fall. By double-clicking the game # to the left of your game, you and your partners will show up. By clicking your partners name you will be able to see their address, phone #’s and e-mail address.
2. Contact your partner at least 1 or more days ahead of time. Arbitersports.com will notify you about the game about 3 days before the scheduled game or games.
A. Decide on the color of shirt, which of you is doing the plate for the first game if you have more than one game or the plate if you have only one game.
B. Uniform for fall baseball means that everyone has a black or navy blue cap. NW Umpires may wear their NW cap. Those that are applying should wear their own black or navy blue blank cap even if you are working with a NW Umpire that has an NW cap.
1. The standard shirt for NW Umpires is the navy polo shirt with red, white and blue trim for collars and sleeves. However, you may wear any color as long as the two shirts match.
2. The pants should be either heather gray or the charcoal gray pants. Remember all uniforms need to be clean.
3. Black belt, black socks, plate shoes, indicator for the plate umpire. I recommend the base umpire not use an indicator. I also suggest a pen or pencil (not for lineup cards but for anything you might have a question about during the game so you don’t forget it) and a plate brush.
4. Plate Umpire – besides plate shoes, shin guards, chest protector and mask (conventional umpire mask or hockey goal style shell).
C. Make sure you know each other cell phone #’s in case of problems. Determine where you will be meeting for the game and what time to meet for the 1st game.
D. Richfield has parking on the street and in a parking lot near a large garage on the west side of the railroad tracks. Alimagnet #1 and #2 have the same parking lot. It is quite large and I suggest you park at the end furthest from the fields as that keeps you away from the teams and any spectators. Siebert has very little parking. Sometimes they allow the umpires to park inside a fenced in area along the 3rd base line where they keep some of their field maintenance equipment. I suggest that is where you park if you are not the first ones there that day. When I evaluate at Siebert, I usually park my car in that area. We are only at Siebert on Saturday’s 3 times out of the 6 dates. We are at Siebert every Sunday for 2 different doubleheaders. If you need any help make sure you contact me for directions and I can help you especially on the date of the games if you are coming in after we start the day because it will be crowded. I do not suggest that you park along the street because then it is too difficult for the two or three of you to communicate with one another.
3. The evaluator is always the 3rd umpire listed for the game. The evaluator is not to call the umpires. The umpires should contact each other first and then one of the umpires or both should contact the evaluator to verify the date, site and time of the game or games.
4. Evaluator please let each umpire know what you are expecting of them and how you will do your evaluation.
5. I previously sent out the evaluation form along with some criteria for both the plate and bases. I will send it out again sometime next week so you can see it once again.
6. Evaluators should spend at least 2 or 3 innings observing the game from the press-box or bleachers prior to coming down to the field and usually spending time in the 1st base dugout so it will be convenient to move to the 1st base line to cover some area that you think needs to be covered and that the umpires can absorb in a short time between ½ innings. This can be a time of correction and/or praise for the umpires performing at an acceptable or above average level.
7. Once the game is completed, share a few items with the umpires while they change for their 2nd game if they have one. If they do not have a 2nd game, then all 3 of you should expect to spend at least 20-30 minutes in a post-game discussion.
8. The post-game discussion should start out with how the umpires believe they performed (individually and as a team). After that discussion, the evaluator needs to point out some of the things they need to cover such as basic ideas such as strike zone, positioning for plays on the bases, voice, rotations, etc.
9. Evaluators, please write up your report and send via e-mail to me at my e-mail address as an attachment. To do this, make a copy from the original evaluation document for each umpire that you are going to be doing during the course of the fall baseball season. You should be able to type your document and then save it again before you send it to my e-mail address of This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will then send it to the umpire with your comments. I will not include your recommendation for acceptance into NW Umpires at this time because that will not take place until after the fall season is over and we have a discussion about the needs of NW Umpires and how the tryout went for each applying umpire.
10. We will be covering some other topics in the next few days but I felt it timely to cover some of these topics before our orientation meeting on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 6:00 pm at The International School of Minnesota in Eden Prairie.
