Editors Message

Greetings MAC/NVBUA Umpires,

Before summarizing yet another jam packed edition of the Blue Crew News, I wanted to take a moment and talk about the relationship dynamic between crew chiefs and the umpire or umpires on their crews and a display of class and grace that I experienced recently that exemplifies the very best our association has to offer in the realm of amateur umpiring.

I was assigned a Varsity double header and my chief reached out to go over our pre-game communications. Initially, he said he would take the first plate and then the following day he messaged me again and said the first game was a great matchup and he “did not want to take that opportunity from me” and gave me my choice on which plate I wanted. He absolutely did not have to do that. The calculus on deciding who gets which plate can be complicated. When you are privileged to serve as crew chief, I encourage all of you to uncomplicate the calculus when and where you can and give your partner their choice.

Association President Dave Maher is in his usual comfortable chair near the virtual firepit to give us all the important association updates that are fit to print. Read his message here.

Up next, swirling rumors have Gary Reals, the world’s most interesting investigative interviewing umpire, in Guatemala running down a story about some ancient Mayans who manufactured artisanal umpire equipment out of ceiba trees and avocado seeds. (Receipts, Gary! Don’t forget those receipts!) Gary will return in our next edition with another revealing profile of an association umpire and has a special message.

Association Rules Interpreter Greg McEvoy returns in this edition with another educational piece on the rules involving Runner Interference and Illegal Slides. These can be challenging plays! There’s a lot of judgement involved and Greg helps you cut through all of that to help us all understand how to use the NFHS rules to render proper adjudications of these plays. Grab your favorite beverage and read Greg’s article here.

Rounding us out this week is Craig Hughes with a mechanics piece that gets us focused on the plate umpire’s responsibilities in the two-man system. As Craig will illustrate, the plate umpire has a great deal to prepare for and execute on beyond balls and strikes, foul tips, check swings, batters stepping out of the box and all the other more traditional and common duties. Grab your favorite Wawa sub (man, how about that Buffalo Chicken wrap, though?) and sharpen up your plate mechanics with Craig.

Brothers, before I shut it down for this edition, I wanted to highlight a recent special article run by another “fledgling news outlet” here in town. Check out this article from WTOP on three of our local brothers who were assigned a recent pre-season game together in which the Nationals were hosting the Orioles at Nats Park. Read the WTOP article.

And finally, in closing, if an umpire in the association gets their name in print outside of a box score, doesn’t that mean they have to buy a round? Asking for a friend…

Thanks again for stopping by and please keep your cards and questions and letters coming in to [email protected]

Best Regards,
Robert Fobian
Editor, Blue Crew News