Fall Ball

I didn't think this would ever happen...well, maybe a little, just not for a few years, but I umpired my first ever College baseball game. Don't get excited, it was an intrasquad game between Central Michigan's players. But, it's still college ball. "IT'S DIVISION I BASEBALL! IT AIN'T INTRAMURALS!" I'm not necessarily looking to get into college umpiring because geographically speaking...I'm not within an hours drive of any college team. So, it's not worth all the drive time and gas money...or a big ego.

Anyway, I had a ton of fun. I umpired for free but got a T-shirt and flex-fitted CMU hat (and I kept one of the game balls). Whoopie! Then again, after my umpiring performance, I should have been paying them (more on that later).

This all started because last spring I umpired with a young guy (I say young because he's actually a high school umpire younger than me...and is a student at EMU) who went to Pro Umpire School and worked in the Arizona league and the New York Penn League which is Single-A Minor League baseball. He told me after umpiring a Capac baseball game about looking into going to the College Baseball Umpires Association, CBUA, meeting next year. Last year it was in Indianapolis for our region and in 2008 would be held in Cleveland. He said I do a pretty good job and should look into it. So, I've kept that in the back of my mind for a long time and keep checking the website for information. I decided I wouldn't do it but emailed my umpire buddy from Caro DJ Svacha who has helped me the last 8 years and I know he's done a lot of college umpiring. In fact, when the Minor League umpires went on strike a year or two ago, he umpired many games, some for the Lansing Lugnuts.

I asked DJ in the email if he was going to the meeting. He said he's semi-retired from college ball because of all the travel required. Then he said, "if you want some college games, you can do some...next weekend." He was talking about the weekend of October 6 and 7. Central Michigan was doing a "Fall Series" between Maroon and Gold. DJ was going to umpire some games and so he said I could go with him. So, DJ and and I umpired on Saturday, October 6 in the 85 degree heat. I umpired all 9 innings behind the plate and he did the field.

Oh, my performance. Again, I'm not looking to rise up in the college level, but I certainly don't want to suck. It's not an audition, but like all fields of work, it's networking, networking, networking. So no pressure, just don't suck. Thankfully it was pretty laid back because it wasn't a regular season game. DJ and I covered a few details before the game and some of the differences between NCAA and High School. But he forgot to mention (and I forgot to ask) the NCAA strike zone. Well, let's just say the pitchers loved me. I had a high school strike zone for wayyyyy to long. Yeah, the belt buckle...that's considered the top of the zone. My zone was about letter high, below the armpits. DJ finally had to talk to me inbetween the 6th inning to inform me the zone is not the armpits or letters at this level. But come to think of it, he never told me specifically until after the game that it was the belt buckle. If I would have known that, my life would have been soooo much easier. A belt is a much better reference point than letters on a jersey.

On the day, I was very impressed with how I was treated. I'm sure there was some chirping going on in the field or bases, but no one disrespected me. I could have and should have been chewed up at times. I only had 1 or 2 "Oh my God" blasts in the batters box. They were all good hitters, so the big zone didn't matter because I think only 3 guys struck out all day out of 54 outs. The hitting was better than the pitching.

Would I like to do it again? Heck yeah. I was still nervous in the 6th inning. It took a long time to settle down. I might have been better if my first college game could have been at the NAIA or D-3 or D-2 level. But, I'm glad it wasn't. I'm not afraid to do college ball, but I've got my work cut out for me. D-1 guys are studs. Rockets for arms. Be on your toes. So, I'll stick with Little League and high school baseball and for the time being, won't push the collegiate level.