Welcome back to another episode of the Blue Crew News! We’ve got another jam-packed edition fresh off the presses with the added feature that we are bringing you two new voices from the association as well as a past voice from Blue Crew News.
We’ll get things going the way we always do with Dave Maher and his President’s Message. This week, Dave will discuss information regarding the date and time of our next association meeting, how to get rule books for those that need them, and most importantly, an update on the association’s uniform policies.
Next up, making his rookie appearance here at Blue Crew News, is rulesman extraordinaire and multi-year Iron Man Award Winner, Vin Vena. I remember the first time I worked with Vin and we pre-gamed for a 13U summer game in 2020 with the then-novel 2-man COVID mechanics. Vin simply dazzled me with his encyclopedic knowledge of the rules of baseball. To coin a phrase about Vin? Vin has seen some things on the baseball field, man. Vin is graciously putting his experiences to work for all of us this week in what I hope will be the first of many, many articles that we are calling “From the Case Play Files of Vin Vena.”
Andrew Klinger is no longer a rookie umpire but he keeps this Blue Crew News rookie voice train rolling with his piece titled “Top 3 Obstacles Umpires Face: A Young Umpire’s Perspective”. Being a new umpire is not easy. Being a young, new umpire is another level of challenges. I was 13 when I worked my first game and I absolutely recall the feelings Andrew speaks to. Regardless of your age and umpire experience, Andrew brilliantly covers some key points of game management, confidence and communication. As with Vin, Blue Crew News also looks forward to Andrew’s unique perspective content in the future.
It was a sad day for the association when news came that Norm Gordon was relocating out of the DC area. I’m sure I speak for all of us past and present who have the privilege of knowing and having worked with Norm. Norm is in that group of people where when we see his name assigned to a game with us, our blood pressure drops 20 points on the spot because we just know there’s not going to be any problems. I used to kid Norm that I thought his game management was “suspect” because I never saw him use any game management because Norm so expertly preemptively umpires everything; the players and coaches just had nothing to say. He had ways of speaking to players and coaches that suggested keeping quiet about their opinion of his work was their idea!
So it is with great pleasure that Blue Crew News welcomes back one of its original voices and editors. Maybe you’ve observed umpires in between innings and wondered…what are they doing? What are they not doing? Why are they doing and not doing those things? Maybe you’ve wondered why when you’re on the plate your games seem to take longer than when your partner is on the plate? Norm addresses all of these next-level umpiring techniques and more with his article, “A Break in the Action…Is it a Break for the Umpires?”
The newsroom bullpen here at Blue Crew News was again fully abuzz this week and that can only mean one thing. The triumphant return of Gary Reals and another fun and insightful profile of another one of our association brothers, Anthony Mayer. I can’t even tease any nuggets from Anthony’s interview because I don’t want to spoil anything. We’re all very fortunate to have someone with Gary’s enthusiasm and experience putting these pieces together and doubly fortunate to have an umpire like Anthony partnering with us all on games and cracking beers and jokes in post-game.
And so there it is all waiting for you to explore…another edition of the Blue Crew News. As always, your letters and photos are always welcome at [email protected] Thank you all for your continued support and readership of our little corner of the umpire publication universe and I look forward to seeing all of you out there on the field very soon.
Best Regards,
Robert Fobian
Editor, Blue Crew News