FORT MYERS, Fla. – More than 500 young high school-aged ballplayers with aspirations of one day moving up to baseball’s professional level gathered here during the last few days in December to participate in the Perfect Game National Underclass Showcase-Main Event at the JetBlue Park Player Development Complex.
This time, on Dec. 28-30, 2014 they were joined at the event by a little bit older crowd who, like the young prospects, were also hoping to get noticed while working toward a career in professional baseball. The only difference is the older guys want to get there not as players but as umpires.
Major League Baseball, Perfect Game and Umpnation worked together to bring MLB Umpire Camps to the National Underclass-Main Event. MLB paid the entire cost incurred by the camp participants.
These ultimately free camps are used to identify potential candidates for MLB Umpire School who may have what it takes to move into, first, Minor League Baseball – MiBL’s umpiring organization is the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation (PBUC) – and ultimately the elite group that serve as umpires in Major League Baseball.
The MLB Umpire Camps website states:
“It is the mission of Major League Baseball Umpire Camps to provide quality non-profit training for umpires at all levels. Not only will the demands of umpires' plate and field work be addressed, the attendee will receive: conditioning, nutritional, equipment and safety instruction to enhance his or her experience.”
There will normally be up to 30 umpires at a typical MLB Umpire Camp and there were 20 in attendance at the National Underclass-Main Event. Eight of those aspirants were selected to receive scholarships to one of the five-week MLB Umpire Schools with the hope they can start their minor league careers as early as this spring.
Several of the trainees came from Umpnation, the exclusive provider of umpires to Perfect Game tournaments and showcases, and two of those umps – Nick Bray and Dexter Kelly – were among the eight to receive scholarships.
“The coupling of the MLB Umpire Camps, Umpnation and Perfect Game creates a win for all three of us,” said Glenn Carnes, the director of Umpnation and the PG Umpire Association. “The Perfect Game showcase gives the MLB supervisors an opportunity to see who applies the instruction from earlier in the day in a live game situation.”
Retired and veteran umpires served as instructors and evaluators at the Main Event camp, which was overseen by Rich Rieker, MLB’s Director of Umpire Development. Among those at the National Underclass-Main Event was Charlie Reliford, and MLB Umpire Supervisor who enjoyed a 19-year Major League Baseball umpiring career, a run that included working two World Series (2000, 2004) three League Championship Series, four Division Series and two All-Star Games.
Reliford found his experience at the three-day National Underclass-Main Event not only enjoyable but educational – he had never before attended a PG showcase. The way showcase games are structured provide a perfect classroom setting for the umpires-in-training because they present real game situations in place of something that had to be recreated.
“These kids are obviously very high-caliber players for their level and it provides me with an excellent training ground,” Reliford told PG. “I’m able to see (the umpires’) reactions, see how they read a play; see things that I just can’t set up in a drill.”
He also liked that fact that during showcase games, there is not necessarily an emphasis on winning. Each player is trying to showcase his own individual talents and if he does a good enough job of that the chances are pretty good his team will win when all is said and done.
“The players are just trying to literally perform and my umpires are getting some invaluable experience, especially from the pitching end,” Reliford added.
Ed Rapuano, an MLB Umpire Evaluator who was also at the National Underclass-Main Event, umpired in the big leagues for 22 seasons. In that time he worked a pair of World Series (2001, 2003), five League Championship Series, eight Division Series and two All-Star Games. He said it was hard to imagine a more ideal relationship than the one developed between an MLB Umpire Camp and a Perfect Game showcase.
“With a young man that has aspirations of going into pro baseball (as an umpire), we get a good feel for their instincts and how well they know the game by being out here and watching live baseball,” Rapuano said. “With (Umpnation) it’s a perfect marriage for us to bring our guys in here. There are games all day, we get to work with our guys in the morning with the technical stuff and classroom stuff, and then we get to come out here and see how they apply it in regular games.”
Rapuano agreed with Reliford that the fact the prospects performing in a showcase environment are looking only to put their individual skills on display in front of the scouting community and are not playing for trophies or rings is beneficial to the umpires in training.
“There’s really no arguments, there’s no fights, no yelling and screaming and we can really get a feeling for how (the umpire’s) instincts are,” he said. “… You could look at a guy for an inning or two in a live game and you can tell if he has baseball instincts, which is real important. (In this setting) we can tell in three or four days if they have the ability possibly to compete for a job in the minor leagues and in professional baseball.”
Reliford pointed out that the umpires in attendance at the camp had varying levels of experience, noting that there were even a few that had never umpired a baseball game before showing up at the JetBlue complex. It is especially important that those true “rookies” are put in a situation where they are working with more experienced umpires while also having the MLB umpiring supervisors and evaluators providing a sort of safety net.
While observing, those same supervisors and evaluators can also get a pretty good feel for the perspective umpire’s personality and demeanor. The rough-and-tumble world of umpiring requires not only a thick skin from time-to-time but an innate ability to reason.
“It’s not necessarily what you’re everyday personality is, it’s what your umpire personality is,” Reliford said. “For our beginning umpires, we want them to be athletic, we want them to have a high baseball IQ; we will teach them the umpire IQ.
“The perfect compliment for an umpire (to receive) is that he is a very reasonable person and he will answer a reasonable question, but if he has to get tough, he’ll get tough. You don’t want to be the tough guy all the time, you don’t want to be the easy guy all the time; you’ve got to balance that scale.”
Added Rapuano: “In this profession, you definitely have to be thick-skinned. But what I look for is just a guy’s appearance, just his field presence – does he have command of his body language? … It’s handling the situations – it’s how you carry yourself, your appearance; is the maturity there? That’s what I look for.”
There is unanimous agreement that conducting the MLB Umpire Camps at a large event like the National Underclass-Main Event is beneficial to everyone involved. Umpnation’s Carnes noted that Perfect Game is a winner because it ends up with better-trained and more professional umpires at its events and PG’s clients – the young prospects and their parents – can see firsthand just how important high-quality umpiring is to PG.
“I think this is terrific and I think Major League Baseball will be very happy,” MLB’s Rapuano concluded. “This is the first time we’re doing it here with Perfect Game and it’s going extremely well. It’s a good time of year because our (MLB) Umpire Schools start in January and we can send them right from here to our schools while it’s fresh in their minds. I think it’s a no-brainer getting in bed with (Perfect Game).”