Umpiring, it’s the only occupation where a man has to be perfect the first day on the job and then improve over the years.
- Ed Runge
Baseball has always brought me great joy. I played for as long as I could, until my legs gave out, and I couldn't run anymore. Naturally, when my eyesight failed me, I became an umpire. For many of us, baseball is more than a game, it’s a religion. The ballparks are our sanctuary, places of solace we find in a religious pastime we call baseball. If ballparks are our cathedrals, then the dugouts are our confessionals, and what happens on and off the diamond, was never meant to be spoken of, until now…
As an umpire, I am a firm believer in getting the call right. I believe in improving the 3-man umpire system. I believe there should be one umpire sitting in the first base dugout, one sitting in the third base dugout, and one hovering up in the stands, right behind home plate sitting, smack dab between the pitcher’s girlfriend and his mama. This way, if there is any doubt about a call made on the field, we can vote on it and get it right!
If you believe that line of horseshit then you will believe just about anything.
As an umpire in Independent Professional Baseball, I see nearly three hundred pitches a night. I’m bound to miss three or four of them. The way I figure it, as long as I don’t miss three or four in a row, everything is going be just fine!
When you think about it, a pitcher has to be a magician. With one pitch, he has to convince the batter that it was far enough off the plate not to swing at it. Abracadabra, during that same pitch he has to convince the umpire that it was close enough to the plate to call it a strike.
Incidentally, I hate ejections, I hate tossing a coach or player out of a game. I despise the paperwork that goes along with it. The only thing I hate worse than an ejection is tossing a coach in a shitstorm of a situation that was my fault.
Even when I’m wrong, I’m still right!
There is an infinite and intangible enchantment to the game of baseball. It is born in the promises of our youth and nurtured in each of us as we savor its nuances and admire its perfection. It is a game of beauty and balance. For those who remain faithful to the game, the allure of the baseball diamond never loses its brilliance nor does its sparkle ever fade away.
There comes a point in every ballplayer’s lifetime when you look back and wish for one more chance at bat. Once you've caught baseball fever, you’ll share a common regret with everyone who has ever played the game. It’s the haunting memory of never having a second chance to change the pivotal, life-altering, event you've regretted for so long. Pursued by unexpected awakenings in the middle of our deepest darkest nights we share the need to try again. Each of us in our own way longs to stop the slow rolling ground-ball that hopped through our legs, skipped passed us to the outfield fence, and disappeared from our childhood into oblivion…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
For over forty years, Harold Moya, Jr., has had the privilege of being a part of the amazing game of baseball, as a player, coach, umpire, fan, and writer. Moya is a graduate of the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpires and a retired Professional Independent Baseball League Umpire. In 2012, the Pecos League selected him to officiate in the League All-Star game as well as naming him Crew Chief for the League Championship Series
Prior to becoming an umpire, Moya served for thirteen seasons as a head baseball coach and has managed teams ranging in talent from Semi-Pro, American Legion, High School, and Select Team Travel Baseball. He has taught and mentored hundreds of players in the individual, and team skills necessary in becoming competitive ballplayers, while at the same time instilling in them the admiration and respect of the game h