MLB Umpire Suspended for Unprofessional Behavior

I was watching ESPN this afternoon and I saw that Mike Winters, the MLB umpire involved in the Milton Bradley incident Sunday, was suspended for the rest of the 2007 season. The MLB front office apparently found enough evidence and information that it warranted this type of punishment.

I am usually one of the staunchest supporters of umpires and officials in general, but the evidence and my own observation indicated that Winters was not an innocent victim in the confrontation.

This situation makes me think about unprofessional umpires at the high school level. Umpires are suppose to be the ones with the level heads on the field. Umpires are suppose to be the "cooler heads" especially in an important "big game".

I have been umpiring high school baseball for 2 years now and there is only one umpire I have personally witnessed acting unprofessionally on the field. I was just watching an American Legion Baseball game toward the end of this past July. The game was moving along smoothly until this umpire (who I have worked with in the past and will remain nameless on this blog) called a questionable balk. The manager for the team on defense came out and questioned the call. Things went down hill from this point and the manager was eventually ejected from the game. Before he was ejected, the manager came over to me in the stands and tries to get me to replace this umpire. I did not because I needed to watch out for my professional career, and the fact that I might work with this umpire in the future. That evening the other umpire called me to tell me the profane and inappropriate remarks this umpire made toward the manager.

This was a tragic mistake by this umpire. He was a young umpire with potential to umpire at the highest levels of high school baseball in a few years. He has been blackballed in this area because of this situation. It was one incident, but it will hang with him for a very long time and may very well cost him chances at working any tournament games.

We can all learn from this situation. Keep your cool! Even if you are challenged or provoked. It is not our job to escalate conflicts, only to defuse them.

Baseball's Version of Poetic Justice?

First off, I do not condone umpires provoking players into a verbal (nearly physical) confrontation on or off the field, but I found a strange type of justice occur when Mike Winters and Milton Bradley went at it at first base during the Padres lost on Sunday to the Rockies. The story began apparently when Winters felt that Bradley threw his bat down the first base line in protest after being called out on a check swing third strike. Knowing that Bradley is a hot head, Winters appears to provoke him into a tirade to the point that Bradley needed to be restrained by his manager, Bud Black. In the process of being restrained, Bradley's knee gave out and he tore his ACL. We all know that Milton Bradley has serious anger issues, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that his anger let to a season ending injury.

I know that he should not have been provoked and it was an unprofessional move by the umpire, but how do you combat a lack of professionalism? With and extraordinary amount of professionalism. That is what we, as umpires, are suppose to exhibit when we are dealing with coaches or players, and the expectations for players and coaches should be the same when facing an unprofessional umpire.

Either way, I just found it kind of fitting way for the most volitile player in baseball to go down with an injury: completely losing his top.

Umpiring in the Big Leagues

Today, I went to Detroit to watch the Tiger beat the Royals 7-2 (not that it mattered really since the Indians won to clinch the Central Division). It was a good game where the Tigers came out and scored 4 runs in the first inning and Verlander took it from there. Of course as the game went on, I watched the umpires and thought how cool it would be to umpire Major League Baseball. The umpires did a great job from what my amateur eyes could see (plus we were sitting really high and down the right feel line which made it even harder to judge). I just kept thinking about how it would be to make a career of umpiring baseball. You see umpires like Froemming, Reilly, McClelland, West, and Crawford have successful, prosperous careers as "playground monitors for multimillion dollar babies". It is hard work as we all know but still, 7 months of traveling around the country watching the best baseball teams and players in the world play everyday would not be a bad job. I have thought about going to umpire school often but the process and low probability of even getting a placement have discouraged me from going to Florida. It has remained a possibility just in case the professional life does not turn out how I think it will.

Anyway, I think amateur umpires, from the youth leagues up through the college level, can learn a lot from professional umpires. By watching professional umpires, I have learned different techniques and styles. I have also learned how they handle themselves during the course of a game.

As the post-season approaches, I encourage you to watch the playoff games on television (or in person which would be really cool), and just watch the different styles of working home plate. You might find something you can use when you umpire in your leagues.

Keeping in Good Shape

I was reading an article about the day in the life of a Major League Umpire this evening and it brought up an interesting point that is crucial (but often overlooked) aspect of umpiring. It discussed the importance of exercising and staying in shape. We, as umpires, tend to forget how important it is to stay in shape. Contrary to popular belief, umpiring can be a very physically demanding job. If we do not work hard to stay in shape, our mechanics, judgement, and even our composure will suffer. The better physical condition we are in, the better umpires we will be.

That is one aspect of umpiring that I need to definitely improve in. I need to develop an excerising plan NOW so that when the 2008 season rolls around, I will be in peek physical condition.

Even though the high school season is 6 months away in Indiana, it is never too early to get in shape!

Here is the link to the article I read that made me think of exercising:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070828&content_id=2174931&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Welcome to the Umpire's Journal!

Welcome to the Umpire's Journal! This blog's main purpose to be an open forum where all umpires can discuss, debate rulings and situations, and tell interesting/humorous stories that can only happen in the life of an umpire. I will frequently ask questions about rulings and situations that I come across as an umpire. I will also discuss techniques that I have found (or been told) to make me a better umpire. I encourage you to read this blog regularly. I hope you will be able to learn new things, or help other learn new things to become the best umpires around!

Play Ball!