Thoughts for the Day, April 28, 2021: It has always been about the kids.

A journey of love that started 53 summers ago comes to an end today as I umpire the last baseball game of my career today with a DH at Adrian Madison.

It all started immediately after by last high school baseball game in 1969, when I contacted Ray Haener, the head of the Downriver Umpire Association and asked if I could be one of his umpires. He said yes, and immediatley assigned me a Little League game in Lincoln Park. I went to Muessels’ Sporting Good store in River Rouge and bought my equipment from money I borrowed from my parents. After that first game I knew I was hooked.

I always wanted to work with kids but i wasn’t interested in teaching or coaching, thus umpiring allowed me have the best of both worlds as I was able to pursue my career in accounting and finance, while also hanging around kids through sports officiating. I umpired seven days a week during the summer while also working midnights at Stroh Brewery. I was always exhausted, but I was loving what I was doing. I was umpiring during the day, while drinking beer on the job at Strohs all while getting paid. (yes, the workers at Stroh were allowed to drink on the job and the drinking age at the time was lowered to 19 )

During those summers, I worked anything from Little League to adult league slow pitch games. I even did church league softball. It was working adult league softball that I learned to handle adversity on the field. In 1970 I registered at the Michigan High School Athletic Association for the first time and started doing freshman and JV baseball games. In 1971 I umpired my first varsity baseball game at Lincoln Park High School. Lincoln Park was coached by the legendary Tom Nolan who had started the Adray League summer baseball program for the top area high school baseball players. Nolan’s teams played in the Adray League and in the American Legion League during the summer. For some reason Nolan loved me and would make sure I was assigned to most of his high school games. Nolan and I had a love hate relationship. During the game, I was the hated umpire and he was my worst nightmare. After the game (if he won) he was a friendly as can be. This relationship went on for three summers as I spent a lot of time on Lincoln Park’s field. When I went back there earlier this month to umpire a couple of games, it brought chills to me as stepped what is now known as Tom Nolan field.

In my sophomore year at EMU, I signed up to be a sports official at EMU where I worked intramural sports under Bob England. I officitated basketball, softball, football and even soccer. Me doing soccer was hilarious at the time as I had no idea about the game or the rules. I figured it out on the fly. During my last two years, my roommate and good friend Larry Schultz, became my partner for refereeing football games. Larry and I became a great team and we handled all the championship games. Doing the fraternity championship games was a true test of our abilities to handle a unfriendly situation. While at EMU I developed a love of officiating basketball. I promised myself it was something I was going to do at a later date.

After graduating from EMU and starting at U of M Hospital, I knew it was going to be a challenge to manage my new career and officiate. During my first summer on the job, I had organized an American Legion baseball team for River Rouge and I was the head coach, chief fundraiser, etc. I did this out of a promise I made to some of the kids I had previously coached in River Rouge’s VFW “Teener League”. I didn’t umpire that summer, but I had a great time coaching those 18 year old kids and competing in one of the best American Legion leagues in the country. Getting to games in a timely manner was a real challenge as Leah and I only had one car, and I didn’t get off work in Ann Arbor until 4:30. Thank god for Leah for being so understanding.

Although my offiating career was very sparce during the early years of my career, I eventually was able to find a balance that I needed. In 1992, I got involved in Ypsilanti American Little League and took over the supervision of umpires for the league. I was responsible for recruiting, training, scheduling and assisting with the paying of youth umpires. I quickly learned I was the most popular guy in town as I had jobs for kids. Some of those who worked for me have gone on to coach or umpire later on in life, including AA Huron varsity baseball head coach, David Brooks.

During my years with Little League, I became a registered Little League umpire and immediatley started umpiring Little League tournament games throughout the region and state. During July, I was umpiring almost every evening as well as the weekends, all as a volunteer. Little League tournament umpires do not get paid and have to cover their own expenses. I used my volunteer status to my advantage. When parents got out of hand, I would calmly walk over to them and let them know that we were all volunteers. Most were surprised and backed off, others didn’t care. In addition, to Little League, I also did selective summer ball games to keep my skills up. I didn’t do a lot of summer ball games, but I did enough to meet my needs and feel good about my skill level.

While at U of M, I made a promise to myself that no matter how my career was going, I was going to retire at age 55 and go back to working with kids through umpiring baseball and officiating basketball. In 2000 five years before retiring from U of M, I reregistered with MHSAA and started umpring weekend high school baseball tournaments and summer ball. Since my daugher Katy was a outstanding softball player, I also registered for softball.

In 2006, at age 54, I shocked everyone at U of M by announcing my retirement so I could go back to working with kids through umpiring baseball and officiating basketball. I retired from U of M on Friday January 6 and officiated my first basketball game the following weekend under Bob Allen at a Westland recreation game. My basketball schedule was filled with recreation games and low level high school games that first winter. I was officiating basketball seven days per week. I loved doing basketball and found it so much easier than baseball. In basketball the complaints are nothing more than crowd noise, while in baseball it is personal because there is so much time between plays and up until this year, baseball is the only sport where coaches are allowed to come on the field to argue calls. During my high school basketball officiating, Bob Allen and Mike Knabusch were my primary assignors. I loved working for these guys as they were great officials in their own right. My basketball carneer was fun and It allowed me to enhance my game management skills, but basketball was always secondary to baseball.

During my consulting years after retirement from U of M, I would tell my client that I would only accept the job if they were willing to allow me to leave early everyday to officiate basketball or umpire baseball games during the high school season. No agreement, no hire. It was never about the money. To this day, I have no idea how I was able pull off being the VP of Finance at the University of Toledo and umpiring baseball and officiating basketball a minimum of three days per week.

In the early years after retirment, the home team school was responsible for assigning game officials, thus it was incumbent upon an official to have a good relationship with the Athletic Directors and their secretaries. Since I had a great relationship with ADs at Belleville, Lincoln, Huron and Ypsilanti high schools, a large majority of my baseball game were with these schools, including state tournament games. Eventually the MHSAA saw the shortcomings in allowing schools to assign officialls, and required that all officials be registered with a local officials association and with an assignor, who was responsible for scheduling officials to games. This change was instrumental in my growth as an official, as my assigner, Dan (Senior) Jeffery, Sr., required that his umpires if they wanted to do varsity level games or be eligible for the state tournament, must attend umpire training camps on an annual basis. Thus, for the first time in my officiating career, I attended a training camp. My first camp for umpiring was the Doane’s camp in Grand Rapids, and then I started attending the Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp (SEMUC) on an annual basis. This was a 2 and 1/2 day camp filled with classroom and skill level training by instructors who attened major league umpire school. The instructors included major league umpires. Attending this camp was one of the best things that ever happened to my umpiring skills. Seeing the benefits, I also attened a few training camps for basketball officiating.

The great thing about working for Dan Jeffery, is the demand he puts on his umpires. He demands professionalism. If your are not working to make yourself a better umpire, you will not get the good assignments. He also requires his experienced umpires work low level games with up and coming umpires to help with their development. As a result, his pool of experienced umpires are the best around. These are guys who love umpiring and are in it for the kids. Every year, his pool of umpires dominate the high level state tournament games.

In all my years of officiating, the kids have not changed. They just want to play the game, give their best and move on. Players rarely talk back to the officials, especially at the varsity level. They just want the official to be fair, consistent and care about what they are doing. There is so much that parents can learn from their children when it comes to how to treat officials. The joys I have had over the last 50 years interacting with the student athletes, is the reason I have done this for so long. Just this Monday, the catcher from Wyandotte who caught the 11 inning game last week, talked to me and my partner for 15 minutes in the parking lot following another loss by his team. You cannot put a value on something like that.

As far as coaches and parents, there is a rule that applies, “the younger the players, the worse the behavior of the coaches and the parents.” By the time coaches and parents get to the varsity level, they have figured out that the umpires are not the problem and very rarely are the deteminate of the outcome of the game.

When people find out about me being an official, they always want to know about my ejections. They are surprised to find out I have never ejected a high school coach and have only ejected one high school player, and that was for poor sportsmanship toward an opposing player. I always figured that if I had to eject a coach or player, I was not doing my job. I found that talking to players and coaches in a calm voice went a long way in handling tense situations.

My only regret about officiating is that I never got the address of employment of some of the parents who yelled at me while I was doing my job. I always wanted to show up at their place of employment and start yelling at them in front of their peers about how they were doing their job and see how they liked it.

I will continue to be involved in officiating by training and observing young umpires. It is not something I am going to walk away from completely. It has been too important part of my life and it is too important for our kids.

Stay safe. Wash your hands regularly. Social distance. Wear your mask properly. Schedule your vaccine.

Quote of the Day: “Call strikes” The montra of Dan “Senior” Jeffery, my assignor. It is on every email he sends us.

Orchid of the Day: To my fellow officials. The greatest fraternity of unique people who have ever walked this earth. Who else takes on a job where people think it is OK to yell at you while you are doing your job.

Onion of the Day: To the parents who embarrass themselves in front of their stundent/athletes by yelling at the sports officials.