How to Prepare for Independent Baseball Tryouts

Clubhouse Gas Casey: Today we’re at the Tournament of Champions, one of the premiered travel ball tournaments in the nation it’s at East Cobb Baseball and today it’s just 11-year-olds. We caught up with one of the umpires and he says he’s been an umpire for 28 years and does over 700 games per season. That’s a lot so we figured. We’d ask him a couple of questions like is this healthy for the kids. The difference in umpiring regular recreation leagues and travel leagues and how does coaches and player’s differ form league to league. It’s a great show and it’s all right here on Clubhouse Gas. Well this is some of the best 11-year-olds like you said that in the nation and we can see that level of ball because they make the routine plays. We don’t have to worry about pitching or second guessing where they are going to go with the ball on a play. This is a situation where maybe as a home played umpire you’re just trying so much is a little tighter than it would be normally for 11-year-olds? Chuck: Yes well we make them throw a strike. A strike is a strike now you know like I said we also look at the level of play but in this level of play they put he ball, they make you hit the ball. They make you put the ball on play. They’re not going to walk better around basis. Casey: Does the level of coaching match the level of player at this level? Chuck: Well the knowledge, the knowledge of the coach is what matches the players. The knowledge of the coach is out here. They know the rules and their going to use the rules as close to their advantage as they can and without break the rules. Casey: Does that make your job easier, is it easier to deal with these coaches who would do this all the time and have more experience or is it more a difficult job for you with maybe with – ? Chuck: It makes our job easier but it also makes us be on our toes. I mean we can’t be like a days cool and we like to study, stay sharp, stay fresh, stay current and make sure we have the latest upgrade on any rule or any change any rule interpretation, and any rule change that the tournament might have. Casey: Because it’s good for the kids I mean is this something that you think in a summer time is a good thing for 11-year-olds? Chuck: I love this atmosphere and what it does for the kids is they interact and if you watch in between games you’ll see them out here playing ball with a soccer ball or something and kicking the ball around playing interacting with other kids and I think it gives them a versatility for other cultures. Other states, other lifestyles and what we try to do as umpires, we try to make sure that the kids will relax, play ball and may play so much better when come out and we interact with them and let them know we’re not your enemy. We’re out here to help you have a fair and safe game and they come out and relax and play ball and they play so much better when they’re not in a tense atmosphere. Casey: What is the major misconception that most people have as far as umpire’s go? Chuck: That we’re perfect and we won’t miss a call. The thing about it is and I’ve been doing this for over 28 years and I realize that there’s going to be one or two calls that’s probably somebody is not going to agree with. But if I feel that I miss a call or was in a wrong position then I might have had a better angle. The next thing I do, I do just like a player. I try to work harder to get a better angle on the call but next go around. Never make one up if I miss one I’m going to get the next one right and do everything I can to make sure I’m in the right position. But we love this game and we love it as much as the kids do and so we want to come out here for the kids and our job if we do it right helps the kids to prepare for high school, college and hopefully the pros. Casey: What’s the biggest challenge for you as an umpire whether it would be hitting the field or behind the plate when you’re dealing with kids 12 and under? Chuck: Keeping them in the game you know if you make a bang, bang call sometimes their emotions since their 11 years old they get scared because you banged them out. Their emotions are on their sleeve. They might get intimidated so we have to try and keep them up and say look, good play, good try, nice hustle and although we’re umpires we’re also encouraging the kids to stay in the game. You know we want to keep them going; we don’t want them to give up on this game or play it for 2 years and quit. We want to see them keep on. Casey: You’ve been umpire for 28 years, there has to be in 1 or 2 situations that have happened where you went home and wanted to tell somebody. You wanted call and then you’re not going to believe what happened to that? Chuck: Well in the regional sports game we had a play where I was ump played umpire and there was a ball that was hit over my head. The catcher sees it late turns around and takes his mask off. As he was taking his mask off, he reaches back with his glove to try and catch the ball, he’s laid out prone and the ball hits his glove and bounces straight into his mask. Of course we had to do you know we’re working a 3 man game because it was in the regional final so we had to make the ruling on that and we got it right but a lot of people got it wrong. It’s no catch, no catch, it is detach player equipment. It hadn’t been a fair ball. It would have been a 3 base award but since it’s a foul ball it’s just a foul ball no catch. Casey: So a lot of people were unhappy but they would have been a lot more unhappy had the ball land the kid got a triple on it? Chuck: Yeah if it would have been a bunt in fair territory and the catcher leaps out there and it bounces in his mask for say we got a three base of warden that would have been a little bit hard to sell. Casey: Just a little tougher question for you, can you make a case in which a coach is used a ruling to affect the outcome of it, maybe not even at he end of the game but ruling, a rule book decision come to you and there’s been a rule book decision that has affected the outcome of the game seriously? Chuck: Well I think the probably the one that comes to mind most would probably be in a high school situation where they reenter the starting pitcher. The pitcher went 4 innings, it wasn’t removed for trips to the mound or excess warm up pitches and he sat on the bench wasn’t removed from the game was still in line up and they brought him back in and he continued to pitch and I guess that’s pushing that they all want to know— that’s one of those archaic rule that you know as long as you’re not removed from the game and hasn’t removed from excess pitches or trips to the mound. He can come back to pitch. And then he comes in and shuts him down in the seventh inning so that’s probably one of the most unusual or of the ones that I think was the most unique that I have bee involved in. Well like I said it is one of those rules that a coach would use if he’s trying to save a number of pitches. The pitcher gets up around 60 or 70 pitches at the high school level. He’ll bring him out and then all of a sudden he knows that he doesn’t have anything, he doesn’t have any depth on his bench and he needs to bring somebody in. He can bring him in and that’s one that was like I said has been used very, very rarely. Casey: Alright well thank you so much. You’re out here. Chuck: Thanks.