Still Some Ways To Go

Boy, the last several days of school have been tough. I don't think I've ever experienced as much frustration, confusion, and exhaustion as I have over the recent days. Needless to say, school has definitely been a challenge, not so much in learning the material and content, but in the application of it on the field. And while our instructors tell us that this is exactly what we should be experiencing and that we'll be okay, I wonder if we'll truly be able to master everything by the end of our 5 week course.

To clarify, the part that I, along with the rest of the class, am struggling with is NOT the rulebook. While learning from the rulebook about the "laws" of baseball is by no means easy, it is just slightly easier than the rest of class. The rules themselves are relatively black and white, especially with approved interpretations to help clarify. Consequently, studying the rulebook becomes more of a memorization exercise, and one simply has to remember which rules apply in which situations, and then apply one's own innate judgement.

Our headaches are coming from developing and applying the proper footwork and movements on the field. In class and on the field, we learn and practice the specific movements and footwork to use for every situation. But diagnosing the situation at game speed and then utilizing the correct and appropriate footwork instinctively without hesitation? That has been extremely difficult, since it all depends on how you "read" and react to the play, which is always changing and morphing. In addition, even if we got the general footwork and movements right, none of us have been able to perform all the mechanics to perfection, and are inches off at best. Yes, inches might not sound like a lot. But with the focus and attention on details and the instructors constantly giving us minor adjustments to make, inches seem more like miles. Of course, this doesn't even cover the issues that we currently have with field awareness (where the ball is and what ALL the runners are doing).

Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that we haven't made progress. Everyday, slowly but surely, we get more and more comfortable with things we learn in school. For instance, since the start of school last week, I've essentially "forgotten" many of my past umpiring mechanics that were incorrect, such as my plate stance, ball & strike calls, safe & outs, etc. If I look at progress from this perspective, I shouldn't be too down on myself considering that I am picking up all the things that we're learning in class, and perhaps it'll only take time before I master the newer material. In a way, I imagine that the frustration is coming from being overwhelmed by the amount of new things that we're covering everyday and the inability to master it immediately. I guess that the best that I can hope for is that my light bulb will go on and that everything will come together piece by piece before the end of school.

In other news, we got a early end to class today since we were "rained out" and couldn't do our field work and hence, I had a chance to type this post, synced to the rhythmic sound of ocean waves. I can also report that I have yet to get sunburn or panda eyes, although my farmer tan is looking pretty good and I reek of Coppertone SPF100.

Random Musings

Today was the first free day that I've had since I got to Florida.  It also marked the end of the first week at school. Here are two random things that happened or that I noticed, not in any particular order or with any particular linkage between them.

On Friday morning, there was an fire/explosion in one of the rooms of the hotel next to us. It turns out that the room was a makeshift meth lab. Go figure. It certainly made for an exciting day at school with all the police and news crews swarming the area.

Having spent a week in town now, I can say that my impression of Daytona Beach is very different from what I expected. While it's definitely a transient kind of town, it's a lot quieter and peaceful that I had expected, especially for a place well associated with the NASCAR races and spring break. In fact, with the number of vacant lots and empty commercial buildings in addition to the slow nights at the restaurants and bars that I've seen, I would venture to guess that the local economy has taken a hit in recent times and I'm witnessing some of the effects. Either that, or I'm here at the wrong time of the year. Nonetheless, I can say that Daytona's reputation for beautiful beaches has not been tarnished.

Brief Update

Walmart is a polarizing retailer; people either love it or hate it. For some at umpire school, it's heaven. With its 90 day return policy and no restocking fees, it was the perfect place for them to "rent" a big flat screen TV to upgrade the old analog TV's in our hotel rooms for the next 5 weeks. Who said umpires weren't clever?

Related to school, I don't have too much to report. In class, we've been focusing on some of the less interesting, but no less important, parts of the rulebook, such as the measurements of gloves for them to be considered legal, dimensions of the field, and requirements for putting the ball in play. In addition, we've started to cover mechanics of the home plate umpire, and his responsibilities and movements in basic situations. Repetition has been the theme with these mechanics. And to utilize these mechanics with the grace and confidence that are required of professional umpires, additional practice outside of class is needed. Fortunately, we've been able to use the beach right outside the hotel for these purposes in the evening. Personally, I've enjoyed practicing on the beach. For one, the beach and the ocean provide a tremendously beautiful view and background. Furthermore, practicing at night under the star filled sky, the sound of the ocean and waves provide a relaxing and therapeutic end to the day. Not to mention, practicing in the dark helps prevent by-passers and other tourists from seeing us crazy people, who are making all kinds "silly" gestures in public.

One other news-bit, first 2 tests are on Monday. Bah, school.....

1st Class

Today was cold. Well, technically it was high 40's and low 50's, which isn't that bad for this time of winter. But since I'm in Florida, I expect more. At the minimum, I didn't expect the insane wind chill while standing on the fields. But then again, I guess I shouldn't complain since it was low 20's in NY today.

Anyhow, started the first day of class today. Morning was mostly going over some of the general umpire concepts and basic parts of the rulebooks. The bulk of the work today was in the afternoon, where we practiced how to put on, take off, and hold our masks, as well as an umpire's "bread and butter" mechanics (aka signals in this case), those for balls, strikes, safe, and out. While one might think that this is easy and simple to do the, the reality is that it requires a lot of work to get them perfect. It takes tons and tons of practice just to get the motions and signals right, ie. to make sure that your arms are fully stretched EXACTLY parallel to the ground to signal safe, that you wait EXACTLY enough time after the pitch before you make your call, and that you voice echoing the call of the pitch is EXACTLY loud enough, etc. (Notice the perfection theme with these recent posts?) With a dozen or so sharp eyed instructors helping us along, the entire afternoon was spent on the before said chilly field, practicing these mechanics, along with the proper timing associated with them. Since none of us got all these things exactly right, take a wild guess at what our homework was? And no, it wasn't weird that we were yelling "BALL ONE," "STRIKE ONE," "SAFE," and or "HE'S OUT" at the top of our lungs in our hotel rooms. It is only weird if the majority of the people in the hotel weren't doing the same thing.

The other interesting point of the day was that all of us at school were sore by the end of the day's class, simply from practicing the mechanics and being on our feet all afternoon. I admit that I'm not in the best shape of my life, but I thought I was in relatively good shape and I would be okay. Well, my feet and quads disagree. Being that today was only day one, I can only imagine the what the rest of school holds for my legs. And you thought umpires didn't have to be in shape? Well, you probably still do. But in that case, you can google the younger major league umpires, ie. Jim Wolf and any minor league umpire and I believe you'll see the contrary.

I will leave you with a funny quote we got from our lead instructor today:
"We won't teach the 1 umpire system - it's terrible for checkswings."
(Those of you with knowledge of baseball or softball should get the joke; it might take a second though.)

Arrived!

Today has been one hell of a long day. I've been up since 4:30AM in order to make my 6:30AM flight. And before that, I couldn't fall asleep at all, no matter how hard I tried. It was the first time that this has happened to me since the night before my Junior girls' softball championship game. I can't pinpoint what the reason was since I had been feeling super calm before this. It certainly wasn't the excitement. Rather, it was probably more of the anxiousness and eerie calm that precedes a storm that kept me up.

I arrived at Daytona Beach and reached our student dorm, aka hotel, shortly before 2PM. After some initial paperwork, I received the keycard to my room on the 2nd floor. The room was a standard hotel room, but included a kitchen and stove. It also came with a mini balcony and a pretty sweet view overlooking the pool and the Atlantic Ocean below.

We ended school related activities around 6:30PM after some basic orientation and introductions about every instructor and student in the class. What was fascinating was the wide range of individuals who were here, both geographically, demographically, and age wise. There were tons of young 18 to 21 year olds, who are on their first time away from home, as well as several older guys, including one who is rooming with his wife and another who will be rooming with this 97 year old mother. It was definitely amazing to witness the diversity of the class first hand and it really reinforces my belief in the passion of the people who are here at school.

Anyhow, fun fact, the highlight of my day was winning a extra school shirt by answering a trivia question correctly. (Name 4 of the 6 umpires who worked the World Series this past year) I do hope that it only goes uphill, not downhill from here, haha. The second highlight of my day? Finding canned Yuenglings in the Walgreen.

Solid start.