| Welcome to GOOD CALL!, the newsletter for baseball and softball umpires, supervisors, mentors, and trainers of all levels. In this five-minute read you’ll find: One story One question One news item Feel free to forward this newsletter to other umpires. If you’re unable to forward it, please send those umpires to umpirementors.com and they can sign up for future newsletters. |
| Secrets of Umpiring – Part 2 |
| This issue is part two of Secrets of Umpiring. To recap, last issue we gave you three “secrets” of umpiring (Note: there is no such thing as a “secret” to becoming a good umpire, but these issues may not come to mind all the time when you think about what it takes to become a better umpire). To recap, last issue we listed these as key “secrets” to being a better umpire: Be a better listener. Listen to everyone, take what you need from what they say. Be prepared to change. That means abandoning what you’re comfortable with. Know the rules. No amount of working on timing, angles, positioning, head height or anything else will make you a good umpire if you don’t know the rules. We have three more for you. So here we go. EGO/PRIDE Put it away. It has no place here, when you’re learning. If you’re too proud or your ego is too big that you’re not willing to try new things and make some mistakes along the way, you’re just not going to get better. Also, if your high-level mentor is telling you, for example, that you need to stay down in position until the catcher catches the pitch, and you’re thinking you’re already doing that, so you don’t need to learn this step, you’re not going to improve. Lose the ego. Your mentor isn’t telling you this for any benefit to him. He’s trying to help you. Listen. Put away your ego. FUNDAMENTALS I remember one time at, of all things, a golf clinic, someone asked the teaching pro how to put backspin on his iron shots. The pro asked the learning golfer what score he usually shoots. The golfer proudly replied he consistently shoots in the 90s. The pro told him that maybe he should learn to be more consistent first. “First you get good, then you can get fancy,” he said. The same idea applies to umpiring. You can’t progress in an area if you don’t already have the basics. It’s hard to teach an umpire about head height, timing, the slot, or anything else to do with plate work if the umpire is always jumping up before the pitch comes in. First you get good, then you can get fancy. HARD WORK/PRACTICE Other umpires may have more talent, more knowledge and more experience than you, but nobody can outwork you if you put your mind to it. Focus on your goals. Work on them until they become second nature. The place to work on changes isn’t at a high-level playoff game. It’s at a level that may seem a step down for you, in a game that has nothing on the line, like an exhibition game or early regular season game. If you find the baseball happens fast at the age-15 level, work on things during a game with players aged 13 and under. If you’re working on timing, for example, you may have to really slow things down in this game so you’re more focused on timing. This will be inconvenient to the players, but it won’t affect the outcome. Keep working on it. Focus on your issue, work hard at it, and keep working on it until you don’t even have to think about it any more. To recap, here are some secrets to becoming a better umpire. Focus on these and I can guarantee you’ll be a better umpire: Listen Be prepared to change Know your rules Put away your ego and pride Know your fundamentals Get used to working hard and practicing on your goals |
| 2. This Month’s Question We’re going to keep the same question this month, because this is a great opportunity for you to pass on some wisdom to learning umpires. What’s the one “secret” about umpiring that helped make you a better umpire? Sharing your tips with others could help them as well. Send it to umpirementors@gmail.com |
| 3. Did She Go? Yes, she did. She went all the way to the Major Leagues. On Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025, Jen Pawol forever changed the game by becoming the first female umpire to work a regular-season MLB game. In the last 50 years there have been lots of female umpires who blazed the trail ahead of Pawol, and worked various level of minor league professional games, and even MLB exhibition games. But Pawol is the first to officially work a regular season MLB game. It’s not as if MLB flew her in from nowhere. Pawol, 48, has paid her dues and earned her spot. Perhaps an argument could be made that she more than paid her dues before this, but this is not the place to do that. Before her MLB debut, Pawol worked about 1,200 games over 10 years in the various levels of the minor leagues, working her way up to crew chief at the Triple-A level. Pawol’s first pitch as plate umpire was a called strike. Perhaps, as the ABS system indicated, the pitch was inside, but this first pitch was for posterity, and Pawol called it a strike. For the day, according to various websites that keep track of such things, Pawol was in the bottom half of MLB umpires for the day in ball and strike accuracy. That’s not really the issue. The issue is, she was rated on the same system as her peers, who are all male. Pawol will get better at the MLB level as she gains experience, but she will always be in the record book as the first female umpire at that level. How many of her male peers can say the cap they wore on their MLB debut now sits in the Baseball Hall of Fame? |
