S2:E16 - Fall Baseball and Umpire Development

09/24/21 • 43 min

In today's episode we are joined by our friends and mentors, Gary DiFabio and Jeff Henrichs. Gary is a 15 year NCAA veteran who works most of the D-I conferences on the West Coast, along with D-II and some Junior College conferences. Jeff is a 28 year NCAA vet, with 8 College World Series rings. We examine the purpose, and importance, of Fall Baseball from the perspective of the schools, assigners and the individual umpires.

We discuss the importance of Fall Baseball to an umpire's development, and it's relationship to the umpires' assigning association(s). We note some evidence of changing attitudes in some umpires' attitudes regarding Fall Ball, including compensation.

The topic of the difficulties observed on the difficulties staffing fall baseball scrimmages by the lower levels (non-D-I) of collegiate, and all of the high school levels, is also explored. Is it a combination of effects that are limiting the numbers? (e.g. post-COVID pandemic reluctance, season burn-out, lack of compensation)

Please join us in welcoming Gary DiFabio and Jeff Henrichs!

We would love to hear from you. Please rate us on ApplePodcast, or send us feedback at: [email protected] , or visit our website for more information - https://www.strike3podcast.com

Please join us in welcoming Gary DiFabio and Jeff Henrichs!

We would love to hear from you. Please rate us on ApplePodcast, or send us feedback at: [email protected] , or visit our website for more information - https://www.strike3podcast.com

Previous Episode

S2:E15 - College Assigning During COVID-19 w/ Alex Skandalis

The 2021 College Baseball season was a challenge for all parties, and no group of people were impacted like assigners. Please join CB, Trav and ENak as we welcome our friend and mentor Alex Skandalis. Alex is the Executive Vice President & CFO of United Umpires, which has two divisions - United Collegiate Umpires and United Travel Umpires. UCU assigns umpires in 18 conferences throughout the Northeast region, including Divisions I, II, and III schools. UTU assigns non-scholastic baseball in several regions of the United States. UCU is also provides premier umpire training opportunities through camps and clinics. We talk about the timing of the 2021 baseball season and the COVID-19 testing protocols, some rather unsettled game schedules, and reduced number of available officials. We also looked forward to what may happen for the 2022 college baseball season, and ideas about recruiting new, and retaining existing roster umpires, and the importance of training opportunities. United Umpires can be found at: https://unitedumpires.org/ We would love to hear from you. Please rate us on ApplePodcast, or send us feedback at: [email protected] , or visit our website for more information - https://www.strike3podcast.com

Next Episode

S2:E17 - Camps & Clinics w/ Billy Haze

Today we begin a 3 part series on Camps & Clinics. Our first guest is the the NCAA Baseball Director of Umpire Training and the founder of Black & Blue Umpire Camps, Mr. Billy Haze. This is Billy's 11th and final year of running BBUC. We'll discuss how he got started in baseball, his time in professional baseball, how he got into college baseball, how BBUC got started, and much, much, more. So please sit back, relax, and enjoy our conversation with Mr. Billy Haze.

Black & Blue Umpire Camps - https://blackandblueumpirecamps.com/

Please join us in welcoming Billy Haze!

We would love to hear from you. Please rate us on ApplePodcast, or send us feedback at: [email protected] , or visit our website for more information - https://www.strike3podcast.com