Women Umpiring Baseball - Recently Updated Pages

How Can I Support Women Umpiring Baseball?

ksargeant — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:08:27 CDT

The more active and vibrant this community is, the stronger it will become. If you find WUB useful and would like to help improve the site and the organization, here are some ways you can help:

1) Add new content, either to existing pages or by creating new ones.

2) Ultimately, and for a variety of reasons, WUB would like to incorporate as a non-profit. If you have experience in starting or managing non-profits and can advise us, or if you are interested in sitting on the board of directors, please let Kate Sargeant or Perry Barber know.

3) Organize regional meetups of WUB members and friends, perhaps by creating an events page.

4) Submit possible logos for WUB. Design T-shirts, etc. (For tax, accounting, and tranpsarency purposes, WUB does not plan on offering merchandise until after it incorporates.)

5. Suggest, via discussion forums, new directions for WUB to take. What do you wnat to see WUB doing in the future? Whho do you want to see us working with? How do you think we can best fulfill our mission of supporting girls and women who umpire (and participate in other ways in) baseball?

6. If you have web design skills and are interested in helping us build a private site (not hosted by Wetpaint), please send a message to Kate Sargeant. Or, help us set up and maintain an e-mail list.

7. Add your own ideas to this list!

Shoes

ksargeant — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:07:09 CDT

*Plate Shoes
A pair of black steel-toed work shoes from Sears or Wal-Mart is a good option for people just starting out, especially if they aren't sure umpiring is for them. A major concern is that these shoes lack metatarsal protection (a long, plated tongue on the outside of the laces), but they work as a temporary measure. Once a person makes a commitment to umpiring, though, he or she should invest in a dedicated pair of plate shoes or boots.

Plate shoes come in two basic types: low-top shoes, and high-top boots. Some find the shoes lighter and less restrictive of movement, while others prefer the greater ankle support of the boots. Honig's and Gerry Davis both offer good plate boots, in both full-grain and patent leather. Generally, the Davis boots are a little heavier, but some people think they look sharper, too. Whether an umpire wears shoes or boots, the protection incorporated into specially designed footwear will offer better protection for the many small, fragile bones in the foot than steel-toed shoes alone can.

*Base Shoes
Any black or black-and-white turf shoe will do as a base shoe. Some prefer all-blacks for ease in cleaning and less flashiness, but that's personal preference. Differences among styles and brands can be slight, and a good strategy for anyone unsure about what shoes to buy is to order several pairs to try; most equipment suppliers have excellent return policies for unworn shoes. A few umpires prefer patent leather base shoes for ease of care, but they've never really gained traction in the umpire community and most umpires prefer the classic look of base shoes with full-grain leather uppers. There are many base shoe options are available in umpire supply catalogs. However, many umpires will opt for black shoes, such as Nike Shox, available at regular sporting good stores.

A common problem for lady umpires is finding shoes in their sizes. Many whose feet are smaller than commonly stocked men's sizes are able to find very suitable base shoes in kids sizes at sporting goods or specialty athletic shoe stores.

Reviews
Be the first to review a pair of plate or base shoes! Log in and write your review here.

Why "Women Umpiring Baseball"?

ksargeant — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:01:51 CDT

Because, to quote Madeleine K. Albright, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." This is especially true in the super-competitive world of baseball umpiring.

For a few years, women who umpire baseball all over North America have discussed, from time to time, creating a way to make it easier for us to network and communicate. I hope this site is the very humble beginning of a strong and lasting virtual place for us to come together and share ideas and stories, ask questions, find mentors, and have fun. This is a "wiki" site, which means members are welcome to edit or add pages, photographs, links, and so on.

Of course, our umpire brethren are welcome to join in, too! All are welcome here, as viewers, members, and contributors.

WUB on Twitter!
Women Umpiring Baseball has joined the 21st century and has a Twitter account under the user name womenumpires!

Coming This Fall
Check back later this fall for information on a WUB e-mail list, live chat, and plans for next spring and summer.

Nellie Twardzik

umpireplb — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:19:16 CDT

Nellie Twardzik was the first American girl to play varsity baseball on her high school team - and she did it in 1934 and '35! She was a teenage sensation from Webster, Massachusetts whose batting and fielding skills rivaled those of any of her Bartlett High School teammates. When a school committee decided that Nellie shouldn't play with the boys, her fellow students and teachers got together and wrote up petitions in support of her being allowed to stay on the team. She won that battle, and earned the respect of all who saw her play wherever she went.

Nellie may have made history three quarters of a century ago, but the repercussions of what she did on the diamond still echo across the fields of today wherever young girls and women play baseball. She's still alive and well in Dudley, Massachusetts, and has been honored with a mention in the Congressional Record.

Thank you, Nellie Twardzig Thompson!



Oh Boy, What a Girl! Nellie Twardzik 1935

From the Webster Times May, 1935: "For a time it seemed as though the school authorities would have to call out the militia to quell a whirlpool of rebellion that started in Bartlett High School in Webster, and all because the committee of 12 voted to bar Nellie Twardzik from holding down her regular position on the high school's baseball nine. Pupils immediately prepared petitions of protest. Such pressure was brought upon Principal Cyril C. Smith that he was forced to call a special meeting of the committee which, after considerating all angles, decided to allow Nellie to hold down her regular job at first base....Coach George Finnegan in speaking of Nellie says: 'She is undoubtedly the finest girl ball player that I have ever seen. She plays, fields and hits in a very masculine manner and can throw from first to third better than any candidate on the squad. She fields her position better than most boys and places most of her hits in right field.' "
-Courtesy Of George H. Finnegan archives

Nellie Twardzik Thompson in 2006

Clinics, Schools, and other Training Opportunities

ksargeant — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:10:00 CDT

ATTENTION NOVA SCOTIANS! Baseball NS along with BNSUD will be offereing a "FREE" umpire clinic to any female within NS. The clinic will be offered on May 8th from 9am-5pm at the Hammonds Plains Fire Hall, which is located off the Hammonds Plains Road. It will be taught by international umpire Lisa Turbitt. You can pre-register by emailing Holly.Lapierre@bellaliant.ca.

For the ultimate umpire training experience, umpire school is held in Florida every January. There are two schools, the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School and the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring. The website for each school may also provide information about shorter (week-long or weekend) umpire clinics.

Major League Baseball puts on week-long MLBUC umpire camps. Scholarships to the camp are available based on financial need (send them an e-mail for more information), and each year eight scholarships to umpire school are awarded to camp participants. If you can't attend, MLB also sells the Virtual Umpire Camp DVD, developed in conjunction with PBUC.

Umpire.org has an extensive listing of upcoming clinics.

Herstory: How the Women of WUB Became Umpires

ksargeant — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:14:29 CDT

Umpiring baseball is an uncommon vocation and avocation, and every umpire has a unique story about how she or he came to it. Here are some of our stories:

Perry Lee Barber (reprinted, with her permission, from an essay Perry wrote on Mother's Day, 2009)

My mother, christened Jaqueline Perry Waite, was a remarkable woman, and is the reason I umpire. She was a small town girl from southern Illinois who went to Columbia School of Journalism when she was sixteen, became a Copa girl, and married my father, the scion of a New York shipping family and an Air Force pilot during the Korean conflict. Mom represented American women in the Navy during World War II in her persona as "Winnie the Wave," and was a soap opera actress during the heyday of radio serials. She could have done anything with her life, but she chose to raise my twin sister Warren, our older brother Rocky, and me, rather than pursue a career in show business...She was a free spirit whose vitality was framed but never constricted by the conformities of motherhood, and she never regretted for an instant the choices she had made in her life.

She did regret a few of the choices I made. She was uneasy with the lifestyle into which I aimlessly stumbled after leaving college in Arizona, that of an itinerant troubadour, and never stopped hoping I would settle down, get married, and present her with grandchildren, the way my brother and sister eventually did. We went through periods, typical of many mother/daughter relationships, when neither of us understood the other and carried around a lot of anger and confusion, but it was hard for me to remain upset with her for very long. Rocky had played and refereed soccer during his school days - he was co-captain of the Stanford soccer team in 1973 - and when I started umpiring in 1981 and it became apparent I was serious about making it a "career" of sorts, even importuning my twin to go to umpire school with me in 1982 so I wouldn't be the only woman in the class of two hundred, mom liked to joke that she had no idea when she gave birth that she was spawning two umpires and a referee.

As much as she fretted about my lifestyle, she never complained when she came to any of the Mets fantasy camps or spring training intrasquads I worked back in the mid-eighties and saw me on the field with ballplayers she had, unbeknownst to me, idolized. See, I had no interest in baseball until I was twenty-eight years old, and had no idea how much my mother loved the game until my own burgeoning interest in it sparked a totally different way for us to relate to each other that lasted until the day she died, fourteen years and one week ago. I've always been a trivia nut by nature and one day became determined to beat my friend Barry Bell at baseball trivia, so I went to a bookstore and picked out three volumes at random from the baseball section. From the moment I first started reading about the people and the lore that give baseball its unique hold on the American psyche, I was hooked, and just kept reading and reading for more than a year until I had exhausted the shelves of the Palm Springs and New York Public libraries of most of their baseball-related selections. Palm Springs was where Jack had moved in 1972, and I found myriad excuses to visit her there and then stay for months at a time; such is the flexibility of the frequently unemployed. One day she saw me reading Larry Gerlach's The Men in Blue: Conversations with Umpires, and did something only a mother could do. She made the leap from seeing me read that book, which I had picked from the library shelf solely because it was, quite literally, the last one having anything to do with baseball that I hadn't already read, to deciding that it meant her daughter must want to be an umpire. How or why she made that connection, I'll never figure out. All I know is she saw something in me that I could not see in myself, and as much as it must have worried her to point me in a direction that augured mostly rejection and financial instability, she swallowed her fears in favor of helping me find something with which I would, immediately and irrevocably, fall totally in love.

I found a notice on my pillow one night when I was staying with her during the late spring of 1981, just a few weeks before the players' strike looming malevolently on the horizon would shut down major league baseball for most of the summer. At that point, we were driving together almost every night to see either the Dodgers in L.A. or the Angels in Anaheim, and the thought of not having any baseball to connect me to the universe or my mother was unimaginably horrible. So when I found this ad Jack had cut out from the local paper and deposited on my pillow to ensure I wouldn't miss it when I got home, about how a local little league needed umpires for the season, my first thought was definitely NOT wow, what a great idea, I'm applying for the position first thing in the morning! It was more along the lines of, what the hell is this? When I asked her about it the next day, she told me, "Well, I thought you were interested in umpires. You wrote a song about one." This was true; I had been introduced to National League umpire Ed Montague a year earlier after a Phillies game at the old Veterans' Stadium, and he had made such a profound impression upon me that I composed a paean to him titled The Umpire Stands Alone. "I saw you reading a book about umpires too," Jack continued. I gave her a look. "You've seen me reading books about serial killers, but that doesn't mean I want to be one!" I countered, in my dense and daughterly way.

The upshot of it was that I did indeed call the league and sign on. I amplified my qualifications a bit to get the job, but the administrator who hired me must have been desperate because before I knew it, I was holding one of those old-fashioned balloon-style chest protectors in front of me on a field full of six-year-old peewee players whose initial reaction to my presence was not exactly receptive. ("Is she going to umpire?" was the unifying thread among most of their comments.) Because I had grown up in Manhattan and hadn't even learned to drive until the summer of 1980 and certainly didn't own a car, my mother kindly chauffeured me to my inaugural assignment in Indio, a town about thirty miles east of Palm Springs. I was twenty-eight years old, and my mother drove me to my first little league game.

She sat stoically in the stands and told me after the game that she had almost come to blows with a woman behind her who had been just a bit critical of my competence (or lack thereof,) but by the time I signaled the last out Jack had her eating out of her hand, called me over, and introduced me to her as if they were best friends. The next day, several letters in the local paper excoriated me and raged about how atrocious I was, didn't know the strike zone, let the game go on for three hours, etc., all of which was true, but for some reason the sting of this criticism didn't detract from my enjoyment of the experience, as harrowing as it had been to suddenly find myself the object of so much unrestrained contempt and loathing. All my life I had been charming, witty, socially sought after, good at whatever I did, praised and petted, and now I was a lamb in the lions' den, facing one of the biggest emotional challenges of my life: not to cry on the ballfield just because people were saying mean things to me. None of what came before in my life mattered to me once I put on a chest protector and shinguards, and I learned quickly that being lovely, scintillating, and conciliatory on a ballfield is an invitation to chaos. What my mother discerned in me long before I recognized it in myself was that, through umpiring, I could become the person I really was, strong and free enough to face what I feared, unfettered by concerns about what people thought of me or what I looked like, things that until I learned the ways of the umpire, were foreign concepts to me. In retrospect, I think perhaps she steered me in the direction she did because they were things she might have wanted for herself too, but in the time and the setting in which she grew up and reached adulthood they just weren't as achievable as they are now. So she set me free by maternal proxy instead, and it is because of her that twenty-eight years later I still go out there every game, thankful I have the physical stamina and emotional fortitude to participate in such a meaningful and illuminating way in the game I love so passionately, and eternally grateful she was my mom.

Kate Sargeant
My dad introduced me to umpiring when I was 15. We volunteered for the local Little League together. It was something he'd done for a few years, and when I needed to do a community service project for school, he suggested umpiring. I loved it right away. My first plate job, I was very flinchy. I kept turning my head, and sure enough I took one in the ear. He was right behind the backstop, telling me to suck it up and keep working, and even laughing a little because I learned that lesson the hard way. Metaphorically, he's been behind the backstop ever since--buying me gear when I couldn't afford it, debriefing games with me over the phone when I was in college and beyond, offering interesting incentives to assist my development as an umpire, helping finance umpire school, and consoling me when my dreams didn't pan out the way I hoped. No matter what experiences I've had in the past or will have in the future, I know my favorite umpiring memories will always be of games I work with my dad.

Links

ksargeant — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:15:45 CDT

Other Umpire Sites
Women Softball and Baseball Umpires USA is an awesome Facebook group with interesting discussion boards.
The Amateur Baseball Umpires' Association's site includes clinic information, discussion forums, links, and so on.
Umpnews.com is a simple listing of all umpire-related articles on the web and over the wire.
There's a soft and community-minded side to the guys you see working big league games! BLUE for Kids, founded and operated by major league umpires, is a non-profit for at-risk youth and kids coping with serious illnesses.
Umpire-Empire is a newer online community for umpires, featuring articles, product reviews, forums, and live chat.

Women in Athletics
The Women's Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King, has a site devoted a broad spectrum of information and issues regarding women and sport.
The National Association for Girls & Women in Sport champions equal funding, quality and respect for girls' and womens' sports. Their webpage includes information about their interest areas, programs and events, and professional development (especially for women interested in coaching as a vocation or avocation).

Articles
In February 2008, Ria Cortesio was interviewed by the Hall of Fame's Education Department, and she gave a shout-out to Women Umpiring Baseball!
Click here to find out more about the crew that umpired the 2008 New York Mets v. Michigan State exhibition game.
Ila Valcarcel of the Florida Umpires Association is highlighted in this article.
Perry Barber speaks her mind at Slate's XX.

Other Links
MLB's Commissioner's Initiative on Women and Baseball. MLB values women!

Trailblazers: A Brief History of Significant Female Umpires

ksargeant — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:30:10 CST

In their book Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball, Joel Zoss and John Bowman speculate that the first instance of a woman officiating a baseball game may have occurred as early as 1846. On July 12 of that year, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club played a game officiated by a person whose scrawled signature on the pages of the club's gamebook appears to be "Dolly Flores." Notwithstanding the fact that "Dolly" can also be a man's name or nickname - there was a major league umpire named Albert "Dolly" Stark whose National League career spanned the years from 1928 - '42, with a couple of year-long breaks during which he held out for a better contract - it's still pretty amazing to consider that more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a woman may have been calling 'em as she saw 'em.

Verifiable documentation of a woman paid to umpire doesn't exist before 1904, when Amanda Clement went to see her brother pitch in a semi-pro league. The first game of the afternoon was an amateur contest, and when the umpire didn't show up, Amanda volunteered to step in behind the mound. Her brother vouched that she'd umpired plenty of games in their hometown, and the semi-pro teams were so impressed with her performance that they hired her to work their following game. For the next six years Amanda, who was from South Dakota, worked games in a five-state area, averaging fifty a season. Amanda earned between $15 and $25 a game, and used the proceeds to pay her way through college.

Fast-forward nearly seventy years. In 1970, Bernice Gera, a 1967 graduate of the Florida Baseball Umpire School, contracted to work for the New York-Penn League. Six days later, the president of the NAPBL declared her contract "disapproved and invalid." Bernice took her case to court and in 1972 the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in her favor, throwing out the height and weight restrictions that until then had made it improbable, if not impossible, for women - and a lot of men, too - to join the ranks of professional umpires. Bernice worked only one game, the first of a double-header on June 25, 1972, before retiring.

Christine Wren began umpiring minor league baseball in the Northwest League in 1975. In the spring of 1975, she was asked to be the home plate umpire for an exhibition game between the LA Dodgers and USC--the first game of her professional career. Attendance for this free event was approximately 51,000, breaking previous attendance records for exhibition games at Dodger Stadium by approximately 46,000. In 1977, Chris was promoted to the Midwest League and worked the league's All-Star game that season. She retired after the 1977 season.

Chris's last season was Pam Postema's first. In 1977, Pam began umpiring rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League. Unlike her predecessors, Pam slowly but steadily rose up the minor league ladder, and was promoted to AAA in 1983. She spent six years in the Pacific Coast League and worked Major League Baseball spring training before being released from her contract in 1989. Pam subsequently filed a discrimination lawsuit, which was settled out-of-court for an undisclosed amount. In 1992, Pam wrote a book about her minor league baseball experiences titled You've Got to Have Balls to Make It in This League.

Just as in the Wren/Postema succession, Theresa FairLady (formerly Theresa Cox) went to umpire school and got a job in the Arizona Rookie League the same year Postema was released from Triple AAA. Theresa's career lasted longer than a blink of an eye, but not by much; she never made it out of Single A and was released in 1991 after only two years in pro ball. Her release from professional baseball followed her joining Pam's lawsuit, making it a class-action suit, and testifying against the Umpire Development Program.

Eight years later, in 1999, Ria Cortesio succeeded Theresa FairLady. She was promoted to the AA level, and worked one major league spring training game in Arizona before being released from the Southern League in 2007. During her tenure in minor league baseball, Ria spent portions of many off-seasons teaching at the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring.

Shanna Kook of Canada was the sixth and most recent woman to be hired as an umpire in affiliated profesional baseball. Shanna spent two seasons in the Pioneer League, working in 2003 and 2004, before being released.

During the six-year interval from 1992 until 1998, there were zero women umpires in minor league baseball. Perry Barber was hired as a staff umpire and assignor by the fledgling independent Atlantic League in 1998 and worked in that capacity until the end of the 2001 season. In 2007, Kate Sargeant became the second woman to umpire full-time for a professional independent circuit when she was hired as a crew chief for the New York State League. During the 2008 season, with Ria's release from the Southern League the previous September, Kate became the lone woman umpire in all of pro ball as she toiled for the independent United League in Texas.

As of the 2010 season, there are, once again, no women umpires in all of professional baseball; for us, history unfortunately repeats itself way too often. It also suggests that whoever follows the women already named in this all-too brief summary will have a hell of a task...but she, or they, will also have a wealth of support from the Women Umpiring Baseball community. For some of our members' "origin stories," please check out our page Herstory: How the Women of WUB Became Umpires.

Shin Guards

ksargeant — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:32:51 CST

Shin guards may be the easiest piece of equipment to outfit properly. Simply measure the length of your shin and purchase the appropriate shin guard. Some people prefer the shin guards, sometimes called "leg protectors," with extra protection above the knee and over the foot. To the good, these shin guards to offer maximum protection. On the other hand, you carry that protection around with you all day long. If you wear plate boots already, the foot protection is redundant. However, you do need a full-size shin guard, protection from the top of your knee to your ankle. The 3/4 length shin guards marketed as "softball" shin guards are another bad idea, leaving exposed areas that do need protection.

Reviews
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Chest Protector (Vest)

ksargeant — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:31:39 CST

One of the questions other umpires most commonly ask me about gear is, do I wear a special vest to protect my breasts. Although there have been specially designed vests on the market with that in mind, I find that anything that does its job protecting bone should protect flesh just fine as well. Although there are some lightweight, flexible chest protectors made of closed-cell foam only (much like a catcher's chest protector), they offer much less protection than a chest protector with a hard plastic shell and are widely considered a much more dangerous choice.

Finding a vest designed for a person with a smaller frame can be challenging. Many smaller umpires like the Honig's K1. One advantage is the vest's low profile; a smaller person doesn't look like he or she is overwhelmed by the vest, and the vest is less cumbersome to work in. A concern is that the hard plastic shell is built into the inside of the vest, making a visual inspection of wear and tear impossible.

Other slight umpires prefer chest protectors by Douglas or All-American, although the All-American preferred by umpires working higher-level ball is no longer in production. The West Vest is also now being advertised in a smaller model. (If any one has feedback on this, please post!) All of these chest protectors offer a hard plastic outer shell, which offers good protection and can be inspected for dents, cracks, and other signs of wear and tear.

Sometimes equipment can be modified to better fit the umpire. One WUB contributer moved the adjustable plastic plates on her Wilson vest to better fit her torso, then had a cobbler cut down the excess closed-foam padding and sew the vest to fit her body more snugly. An umpire she knows bought a West Vest several years ago and had a tailor cut and sew the harness, which was too large to adjust properly, to size.

A word about the "softball" vests that only offer clavicle protection: BAD IDEA! No matter what your stance or the level or type of ball you work, if you work long enough you can and will take shots just about everywhere. The general feeling is that it's best to have as few "chinks in your armor" as possible, at least over the boney (and thus breakable) parts of your body.

Reviews
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Umpiring Opportunities

ksargeant — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:54:00 CST

This page is currently under construction.

Women Playing Baseball

ksargeant — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:51:12 CST

Twice during the 2007 season, mothers of young baseball-playing girls asked WUB member Kate Sargeant about umpiring. Both mothers were looking ahead to when their girls turned 13, the age when most youth leagues move their players to larger and often 90-foot fields and when, for some reason, girls seem to stop playing baseball. "Umpiring is great," Kate said, "but why should your daughter stop playing ball? Umpiring's always going to be a second-best, better-than-nothing alternative for her if what she really wants to be doing is playing." She encouraged them to support their daughters if they decided to try out for school teams or play recreational ball, and also told them about various womens' and girls' baseball organizations. This was news to them. In reality, it's not all that uncommon. In fact, in 2008 at least 1,012 girls played high school baseball, according to this New York Times article.

If you're a woman or girl who umpires or is thinking about umpiring as a second-best alternative (and when we say that, keep in mind that we here at Women Umpiring Baseball think umpiring is second to none), but would really rather be playing ball, you will find links on this page to sites for you and other "girls of summer." Enjoy, and happy playing!

The Women's Baseball League page is a clearinghouse for playing opportunities for girls and women. You can find teams and tournaments, information on national teams, and information on playing camps for girls and the annual women's baseball conference. Go, now!

The American Women's Baseball Federation is a good place to find teams and tournaments in the United States.

Baseball For All is an organization created by Justine Siegal, the first woman to join the coaching staff of a professional baseball team (the Brockton Rox, in 2009). Justine is also the only woman currently coaching college baseball. When she was 13, Justine refused to listen to a coach who told her that baseball wasn't for girls, and now she's spreading the message that baseball is for everyone.

The Eastern Women's Baseball Conference (EWBC) is dedicated to providing opportunities for girls and women to play organized baseball and preparing amateur female baseball players for national and international competition. The EWBC uses Major League Baseball rules and includes teams from the metropolitan areas of Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.

Tiffany Brooks just made history by becoming the first American woman of the 21st century to play professional baseball! She's a relief pitcher who also plays first base, and she'll be suiting up this season for the independent Continental League's Big Bend Cowboys. Way to go Tiffany!

This page is still under construction. Please join this wiki and add any information you think others might find useful!

Uniform

ksargeant — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:27:59 CST

*Jerseys/Pullovers: Most women have success in finding properly fitting jerseys and pullovers in umpire supply catalogs. If any particularly small people have suggestions on what to do if you can't get a jersey or pullover in your size, please post!

*Slacks: Some people like the slacks Honig's markets to women, while others object that they are too high-waisted, putting your belt somewhere between your belly button and your ribs. One woman's comment: "These people have clearly never heard of child-bearing hips!" A better option is to buy the "regular" slacks and have them modified by a tailor. This ensures that your pants fit YOU best, and is a worthwhile investment. Your uniform is the first thing you're judged on when you walk onto a field! This option also means that you can get charcoal gray slacks, if you prefer them to heather gray ones or if they're required by your league, conference, or association.

A few suggestions for those getting their pants tailored:
1. Wear the gear you will wear with the pants, including shoes and shin guards.
2. Umpires hem their pants lower than most other folks. The hem of your pants should almost touch the ground. This is especially important in plate slacks, as they will hitch up when you go into your plate stance.
3. You might want to try on your ball bags to make sure the belt loops are where they need to be for you to wear your ball bags properly, especially if you're narrow around the middle. If they're not, your tailor can move them when she or he is working on your slacks. This is also important in case your tailor needs to move the belt loops or waistband in the process of modifying your slacks.
4. If you don't know a good local tailor, ask around. Make sure you are communicating clearly with your tailor. If you feel that your needs are not understood or will not be met, don't be shy about taking your business elsewhere. Umpire slacks are too expensive to mess up!

Reviews
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Cup

ksargeant — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:26:47 CST

Many believe that just as men wear cups, women should wear some sort of pelvic protection. One WUB contributer was sold on the idea after a catcher in an area youth program missed a pitch and suffered a shattered pelvis. This not only ended her season, but promised complications in childbirth down the road. Some women umpires simply wear two thick Kotex pads, one on top of the other. Others prefer a specialized foam-and-plastic pelvic protector, which can be ordered at most sporting goods stores, or through some umpire supply companies.

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Mask

ksargeant — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:19:07 CST

Two styles of masks are commonly used: the traditional mask (TM), and the hockey-style mask (HSM) (lovingly referred to as "the bucket"). The TM is smaller, lighter, and generally less cumbersome. Proponents of the TM claim it is less stifling in summer heat, although proponents of the HSM say that built-in vents make the HSM just as comfortble. Some feel that umpires using the TM have a better "look," especially as it is difficult to wear at hat while using the HSM, and most umpires using the HSM go without.

The HSM is a full mask-helmet combination. Anecdotal evidence holds that it better absorbs and distributes impact, thus better preventing concussion. Some umpires working on fields with short or overhanging backstops feel the HSM better protects them from ricocheting foul balls. Currently there is only one model of the HSM on the market designed for people with hat sizes smaller than 7 1/4. It comes in a standard and a lightweight version.

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Uniform and Protective Gear

ksargeant — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:17:52 CST

Acquiring well-fitting, appropriate gear can be an expensive and daunting task for a new umpire, and it's hard to find accurate and common-sense information about how to select, size, and adjust uniforms and equipment. Even experienced umpires often rely on hearsay and trial-and-error when updating their gear. For women, this challenge is complicated by the fact that most umpire gear is not designed to fit their frames; finding equipment that looks sharp, feels comfortable, and does its job can be difficult. The information on this page is only the result of opinion. If there's objective research to back it up, we doesn't have access to it. Like the labels say, protective equipment does not necessarily prevent injury or death (although it sure beats not wearing protective equipment)!

Click on the links below to find out more about a specific piece of equipment. If you would like to write a review of a particular piece of equipment, log in and add your review to the bottom of the appropriate page.

Mask

Chest Protector (Vest)

Shin Guards

Shoes

Cup

Uniform

You may be wondering, "Where do I purchase umpire gear?" Most of the time, you will not find some of the more specialized equipment at your local sporting goods store! (However, you will find things like synthetic base layer pieces and ball and strike indicators at many sporting goods stores.)

There's a lot of umpire gear on eBay. If you know exactly what you want, or are willing to take a chance for the right place, this can be a good place to score a great deal. Other umpire-related websites, or local umpire association websites, also sometimes have pages where members list gear they have for exchange or sale.

However, if you want a good return policy or new gear (and there's something to be said for a chest protector that somebody hasn't already spent a season sweating in!), there are a variety of companies that specialize in supplying uniforms and equipment for umpires and other sports officials. Most of these companies have both websites and catalogs. Some have retail locations where you can try on equipment, while others will send representatives with equipment for sale to umpire schools and clinics. Below, you will find a list of some of the many umpire equipment supply companies, with links to their webpages.

Honig's Whistle Stop
Gerry Davis Sports
West Vest Umpire Equipment
Ump-Attire.com

Umpire Fitness

ksargeant — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:36:37 CST

Proper nutrition and fitness is extremely important for umpires. This page offers resources for umpires looking to establish or build upon a fitness routine.

It's important to properly stretch before a game. You may use your own stretching routine, or you might like to try the one developed by Major League Baseball: the 3D Free Standing Stretching Matrix. It is designed to address the muscle groups and movements used while umpiring. Some umpires do three sets of each stretch before a game, while others do three or four stretches daily, working their way through the entire chart over the course of a week or more.

Proper nutrition and hydration, or lack thereof, can have huge impact on your performance on the field. This article from Top End Sports gives a good overview of nutrition and hydration specifically for sports officials.

If you're starting a lifting program and don't know what you're doing, it's probably best to hire a personal trainer, or take a class. Barring that, Krista at stumptuous.com has some excellent information on weightlifting and women's fitness in general.

Lance Schoenwald is a personal trainer, professional umpire, and umpire clinician. The following information is from his webpage, and is reprinted with his permission.

Below you will find several workouts, consult your doctor or (lisc.) personnel to see what workout best fits your needs.

Off Season

Workout #1 Push/Pull

Day 1 Push Day
Push up/ Flat bench 3 (sets) x 15 (reps) weight= 55% of max
Shoulder press 3x15 55% of max
Triceps pushdowns 3x15 55% of max
Abs
30 min of cardio (50%-65% of VO2 max)

Day 2 Pull Day
Lat pull down 3x15 55% of max
Seated Rows 3x15 55% of max
Bicep curls 3x15 55% of max
Hamstring curls 3x15 55% of max
Dead lifts 2x10 40% of max
Abs
30 mins of cardio (50%-60% of m VO2 max)

Workout #2

Day 1
Flat bench press 3x12 70% max
Incline Bench press 3x12 70% max
Shoulder press 3x12 70% max
Triceps pushdowns 3x12 70% max
Triceps kickbacks 3x12 70% max
Abs
30 mins cardio

Day 2
Lat Pull downs 3x12 70% max
Pull up's 3x10
Seat Rows 3x12 70% max
Bent over rows 3x 12 70% max
DB Bicep curls 3x12 70% max
BB Bicep curls 3x12 70% max
Abs
30 mins cardio

Day 3
Leg Press 3x12 70% max
Step ups 3x12 40% max
Hamstring curls 3x12 70% max
Squats 3x12 70% max
Dead lift 3x10 40% max
Ab's
30 mins cardio

Day 4
Off day
30 mins cardio

Workout #3

Day 1
Flat bench press 3x10 75%
Incline bench press 3x10 75%
Decline bench press 3x10 75%
DB Flat bench press 3x10 75%
DB Incline bench press 3X10 75%
DB Decline bench press3x10 75%

Abs
30 mins cardio

Day 2
French Bicep curls 3x10 75%
DB Bicep curls 3x10 75%
Straight bar Bicep curls 3x10 75%
Tricep push downs 3x10 75%
Tricep kick backs 3x10 75%
Dips 3x10

Abs
30 mins cardio

Day 3
Front Pull downs 3x10 75%
Seated Rows 3x10 75%
Bent over rows 3x10 75%
DB Bent over rows 3x10 75%
Dead lifts 3x10 50%
Should shrugs 3x10 75%
Pull ups (Palms facing you) 3x10

Abs
30 mins cardio

Day 4
Straight bar shoulder press (front) 3x10 75%
DB shoulder press 3x10 75%
Up right rows 3x10 75%
Front raises 3x10 75%
Squats 3x10 75%
Hamstring curls 3x10 75%
Lunges 3x10 75%

Abs
30 mins cardio (low intensity)

In Season

Workout #1
Total body 3-5 times a weeks.

Push up's failure
AB crunch failure
Pull up's failure
AB crunch failure
Dry Squats (no weights, your weight x 2)
AB crunch failure

Cardio

1-3 min walk
3-4 min jog
4-5 min walk
5-7 min jog
7-8 min walk
8-9 min jog
9-10 min walk
10-12 min jog
12-13 min walk
13-14 min run
14-15 min walk
15-16 min run
16-17 min walk
17-18 min run
18-19 min walk
19-20 min run
20-21 min jog
22-25 min walk

Self-Critique, and Seek Evaluation

ksargeant — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:54:55 CDT

It's been said, "Nobody was born a good or great umpire. A person may be born with quickness, agility, a natural aptitude for the factors that creat good judgment, and so on--but the way to become a good umpire is to work games, talk about them afterwards, honestly evaluate yourself, and make improvements accordingly."

Dwelling on mistakes and successes during a game can create more mistakes (but probably not successes!), so if something goes strangely, file it away at the time, but think about it later. If you're not sure how you could have better handled a situation, taken a play, etc., talk with your partner and see what she or he thinks. Most non-routine situations should certainly be discussed, because even if you handle them correctly, there's always more than one way to handle a situation. Discussing these options might help you out down the road. In most places, etiquette for amateur umpires dictates that an umpire does not criticize her or his partner unless asked, so make sure you ask your partner if she or he has anything for you. Make sure you always save post-game discussion for AFTER the game.

Even if your partner says, "You were great! I don't have anything," you probably know what went well and what didn't, and you should be honest with yourself in thinking about how your game went. Some umpire keep a journal regarding the games they work. Doing so will help you sort through the good and the bad, and it can provide you with a great record of an interesting time of your life, too.

Learn the Game of Baseball

ksargeant — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:52:43 CDT

"Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires." --OBR 1.01

If only it were that simple.

The following might not apply to everyone, but it applies to some. Frequently, baseball umpires are people who grow up playing baseball, perhaps to the college or professional level. Many women, both in the umpiring world and generally speaking, do not grow up playing baseball, at least to the degree of organization their male counterparts experience. Some may be excellent fastpitch players, or avid baseball fans, but it's reasonable to believe the resulting experiences are not the same. This could make a difference in learning, as an umpire, to recognize, read, and respond to many situations that arise on the baseball field, from steals to throwing incidents.

A lack of "baseball experience" might put a "young" (rookie) umpire at a disadvantage at first, but is not an insurmountable obstacle. Here are some suggestions for increasing baseball knowledge.

1. Watch as much baseball as possible. Live baseball is vastly preferable to baseball on TV, and the best games to watch are college and professional games (where players generally know what they're doing and the result is usually "normal" baseball). Simply watching the game isn't enough; put your brain to work and think about why what's happening is happening. It can help to have a game-watching companion with vast baseball understanding.
2. Pick brains and keep your ears open. If you're not sure why a certain situation, say, a squeeze play, might come up, ask. If you're not sure where the left fielder might throw a caught fly ball with runners on first and third and two out, ask.
3. Read everything you can about baseball. Feedback on this is varied. After a friend suggested it, a contributor to this site bought a few books on baseball strategy. Another friend saw her reading them and scoffed that the only way to learn baseball is through experience, not books. Well, she read those books and a few more, and now she's reading plays and play situations much better because she understands what's likely to happen. For her, taking the advice of the first friend is paying off. The books published by Human Kinetics, written by members of the American Baseball Coaches Association, are especially informative.
4. Don't be intimidated. There are lots of very knowledgable people happy to share what they know about our national pastime in an open and non-judgemental manner. Then there are a few twits who will make much of the fact that they know every speck of baseball minutiae, and you do not. In the words of major league player, coach, and scout Bob Cluck, "Nobody ever learns everything that there is to know about the game of baseball." Not even the twits.

Learn Your Mechanics System(s)

ksargeant — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:55:25 CDT

"Mechanics" describes an umpire's crew positioning and sharing of responsibilities on the field. The number of umpires on a crew, and the play situation, determines where each umpire works and what her or his responsibilities are.

Almost every umpire begins by learning the two-umpire system. Although the NFHS and CCA publish their own mechanics manuals, the gold standard for learning the two-umpire system is the Manual for the Two-Umpire System, also known as "the red book" (so-called because it's bright red). This is the manual that PBUC uses and that the umpire schools and most other umpire clinics and training sessions teach out of. This manual breaks down nearly every movement in all routine play situations, step-by-step.

For instruction in the three- or four-umpire system, refer to the PBUC manual. It has somewhat detailed instructions for both, although it's good to have another umpire well-versed in one of those systems to use as a resource.

There are lots of ways to learn and reinforce a mechanics system. Here are a few:

1. Attend a school, clinic, or training. Both umpire schools teach the two-umpire system. In addition, there are weekend and week-long clinics taught around the country that focus on this system. There are also some clinics that teach the three-umpire system. Your local association probably also provides training in the mechanics system(s) it uses. These are great opportunities not just for new umpires, but for everyone who umpires.

2. Sketch it out. Get paper with a baseball diamond printed on it. Better yet, get one of those clip boards made for coaches that have a baseball field on a whiteboard surface. Use different colored pens for each umpire, and draw the mechanics for various play scenarios. What happens with a runner on first base and a base hit to right field? How about runners on second and third, one out, with a fly ball to center field?

3. Walk it out. Go to a baseball field, or mark out a field in a parking lot or similar open space (it doesn't have to be full size), imagine "ghost runners," and walk through various play situations. When you're comfortable, pick up the speed. This is even more fun if you get someone to assume the role of the other umpires.

4. Write it down. Some people create flash cards by copying the mechanics manual, with personal notations, onto index cards: one card for each play situation and umpire position.