Do you go to a school to be a umpire, or are you elected by committee?

Anonymous asked: Do umpires go to school or are they elected by committee ?

Rick answered: Thank you for your question!

There are a couple of Umpiring Schools, directed at potential candidates for positions in professional baseball.

An individual may attend those schools, even if they do not wish to work in baseball at the professional level.

At the amateur level, it is dependent upon the organization involved as to how they instruct their umpire candidates.

Umpiring clinics are generally used. At the Federation (High School) level, umpirires take a certification test as a part of their hiring process.

Different amateur groups and leagues conduct their own clinics, may or may not test the candidates. If the position is volunteer, generally there would probably be no test given.

No election process occurs, to my knowledge.

While umpires often receive a great deal of criticism, it is my belief that they do a tremendous job, one which is essential for the game to function.

Without umpires, the game of baseball as we know it, could not exist.

If you have never attempted to stand in behind the catcher and call balls and strikes, you would be surprised at just how difficult a task that can be.

Take into consideration the numerous quirky rules that are common to baseball and umpires are counted on to sort out the details, do it in a split second and get it right.

Nester Chylak, a former American League Umpire said about his chosen occupation,"This must be the only job in America that everybody knows how to do better than the guy who's doing it!"

They are a special group, at all levels of baseball.

Yours in baseball,

Rick