Umpteenth Time
Baseball is a game of failure. Fans expect umpires to be perfect.
Written by Filed under Sports
“Umpires are in plain sight, yet they are almost invisible,” says New York Times reporter Bruce Weber about the subject(s) of his new book, “As They See ’Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires” (Scribner). When you stop to think about it—it’s true. Umpires only get noticed when they make a bad call, become mired in an on-field controversy, or are physically assaulted during a game. And even then nobody stops to consider: “Who are those guys? Where do they come from? And what does it take to do the job they do?”
Weber took the time to find out, attending umpire school for five weeks before spending upwards of three years criss-crossing umpire nation—hitting the road with minor league umps “chasing the dream,” and interviewing dozens of major league umps in the midst of living it. Along the way, Weber called several dozen amateur games, and even had the opportunity to work a pair of major league intrasquad games at spring training in Arizona, an “eye-opening experience,” as he puts it.
The result is a unique baseball book that provides a rare look inside the largely unseen world of umpires. Failure recently spoke with Weber to find out what it takes to become a professional umpire, and why a certain select group of individuals feel “called” to do a job that seems even less than it’s cracked up to be.
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