Umpiring is a thankless job, but somebody has to do it.

The men and women behind the plate have become a focal point, especially for coaches participating in the McMinnville Youth Baseball and Softball leagues at the Civic Center. On a nightly basis, their decisions are debated, disagreed with, and outright accused of being poor. And coaches made their voices heard when polled in a survey about officiating.

Asked on a basis of 1-10 to rate umpiring, with 1 being bad and 10 being excellent, 22 coaches came to an average of 4.6 for umpiring in the MYBS this season.

A common complaint for the below average score was coaches questioning if the officials knew the rules.

“I’ve seen it worse, but there are still times when coaches are coaching the umpires on the rules,” said Ryan Smith, who coached Triple C Nursery in the boys 6-8 league. “Good umpiring would solve a lot of problems in the leagues.”

Caleb Graves, who helped with Edward Jones Leann Cordell in the boys 6-8 league, saw gradual improvement as the year progressed.

“Some don’t know the rules. It was really bad at the start, but it got a little better,” said Graves, who also mentioned he would take the challenge of umpiring when his kids aren’t playing anymore.

Parks and Recreation athletic director Terry Beard believes his umpiring crew was prepared when the season began, thanks to training days and other techniques to improve knowledge of the game.

Officials in the BPA and Game 7 Baseball organizations did two clinics for umpires and scorekeepers, which Beard said focused on the “getting educated on the what, the why and the how.”

Umpires were also given copies of the rules, along with handouts discussing hand signals and proper field positioning. Beard also encouraged his hires to watch YouTube instructional videos and videos posted on the city website for further training.

It may never erase all human error, but Beard felt confident in their training.

“As far as I know, we’ve given them more training this year than in the last several years,” said Beard.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t more things to teach as the season progressed.

“There’s always room for improvement. I’m continually trying to evaluate umpires,” said Beard. “I won’t correct them in the middle of the game, but I’ll discuss with them after the game and correct it. It could be something positional, or maybe situational. We want them to not make the same mistakes.”

Input from coaches is also heard. Suggestions and complaints are taken under advisement by the league.

“I’ll have coaches say, ‘This umpire has a low strike zone or that umpire isn’t in the right position.’ I try to make it a point to watch those umpires to evaluate,” said Beard. “We’re never 100 percent satisfied, and likely will never be. There’s always a human factor.”

One proposal many coaches registered was changing the hiring practices to open up the talent pool of officials. Many seasoned officials are traditionally paid by the game in most sports, but the city league currently employs umpires at an hourly rate.

Parks and Recreation director Scott McCord admits it would be better if the league could offload the hiring process.
“One of our biggest struggles is we have to hire all our umpires. Would we like to contract? Yes, we’d love to,” said McCord. “But by law, if we tell them where and when, they have to be city employees.”

McCord acknowledged for the last several years the league has looked into hiring an assigner who would take charge of umpires.

As of yet, no alternative has presented itself that is preferable to the current method.

Left to do it themselves, Beard combs over applications in search of quality candidates for the job. Prior experience is always preferred.

“We try to find people who have prior experience who have played the game and have a working knowledge of the rules, if we can’t find somebody who doesn’t already have experience in umpiring already,” said Beard.

Ron Stewart was a longtime presence behind the plate during the days of the Warren County Youth Baseball and Softball Association. With 44 years of experience calling baseball and softball all over the Southeast, he believes selflessness is necessary for any good umpire.

“You have to understand the kids. You have to be out there for the kids – not the parents, not the coaches, and not for the money,” said Stewart, a 14-year umpire and commissioner for WCYBA. “We want to see kids develop and have fun. I always went to the dugout before the game and asked the kids why they were there.

“Some kid would say, ‘To win.’ Another would say, ‘Mom and dad made me.’ And every single time at least one kid would say, ‘To have fun.’ They got it. We have to be out here to have fun.”

Stewart saw himself as an overseer, both of kids and of coaches.

“We’re out there to teach the kids to behave in terms of the sports and to listen to their coaches,” said Stewart. “And I always told coaches, ‘If I don’t think you’re teaching the kids, I’ll let you know.’”

The city plans to work diligently to improve the perception of its umpiring among the league coaches. It is atop the city list, according to McCord.

“The quality of umpires has always been our first priority.”