MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / February 9, 2000

LUTCHER – The sounds of spring are starting to break through the crisp winter airs. The sounds of the crack of the bat, the ball popping into the mitas baseball teams prepare to open the season.

The local high school softball teams start their seasons this week in jamborees. The baseball teams will not be far behind. The state colleges havealready begun with the Major Leagues just weeks away from spring training in Florida and Arizona.

But it’s not just the players and managers getting ready. The men in blue arealso working to get ready for the 2000 season.

Saturday morning at the Lutcher Bulldog diamond, 14 umpires attended the third annual River Parishes Umpire Clinic. Two Southeastern Conferenceumpires, Mark Chapman and Paul Guillie, conducted the clinic. Chapman, whoalso coaches at St. Charles Catholic High School, and Guillie, from Metairie,are the only umpires from the Louisiana-Mississippi region that have worked NCAA Regionals.

This was the third consecutive year that the clinic has been taught by Chapman and Guillie. After giving an overview of the clinic, the two took theother umpires out onto the diamond. The instruction started at home plateand the position an umpire should take on plays at the plate.

Guillie and Chapman also talked about passed balls and runner’s interference as well as well as fair/foul calls and positioning on foul pop ups. The two alsostressed the importance of working with the other umpire on calls.

The umpires were then taken to each base and shown proper positioning for plays on the bases. The clinic concluded with a session on what Chapman andlocal umpire Lewis Grady agreed is one of the hardest calls they have to make – the balk call. From there, the umpires worked the scrimmage betweenLutcher and St. Amant with Chapman and Guillie supervising.Guillie and Chapman agreed that they did the clinic because they enjoyed it more than anything. Both Chapman and Guillie have attended clinics aroundthe country. Both played baseball in high school and got into umpiringbecause they loved the game.

I guess I got started doing the clinics after going to them and after moving up in the college game,” Guillie, a Division I umpire for 17 years and who has worked five regionals and a Super Regional in that time, said. “Workingdifferent tournaments and regionals, working with different umpires, they started inviting me to camps and clinics that they had too. I wanted to bringsomething back to the local area and pass on that knowledge.” Chapman, who has been a Division I umpire for 12 years and a umpire for 20, agreed.

“My main objective is to give back to these guys and many things as I can because I started with them,” Chapman said. “I started out working LittleLeague baseball, working softball, in the industrial league, doing high school baseball. I want them to have the opportunity to learn what I’ve learned andpass it on.

“As Paul said, the things we teach here, it’s nothing we made up by any means. We’re not brain surgeons. We are just passing on what we learned ata little higher level from people who know what is going on. The more youknow the better umpire you will be.”Guillie said the key to umpiring is like anything else, that fundamentals have to come first. Then an umpire can work on creating his own style.”It’s like anything, whether you are coaching, playing or umpiring,” Guillie said. “You have to have a good foundation to start from. And that meanshaving the basics down.

“When you are building a house, you can’t put a real fancy roof on it without a good solid foundation. It’s the same thing in umpiring and playing. If youdon’t have a good foundation and don’t have the fundamentals, it doesn’t matter what you do, you are not going to succeed.

“So I always tell them to have a good foundation. Have good plate mechanics,have good base mechanics. Have a good foundation and then you can startworking on the little tricks of the trade to get in the right spots and things like that.”Both Chapman and Guillie agreed that the game has gotten better. Andbecause of that, the expectations on umpires to get better is also increasing.

“I think umpires have gotten better because the play has gotten better,” Chapman said. “College baseball has made drastic strides throughout theyears. Numerous reasons – technology, players getting bigger and stronger,therefore the play has gotten better. Umpires have to keep up in order tostay there.”And one way they can do that is by the receiving the instruction that was not always there in the past, especially on the high school level.

“There are so many camps and clinics and instructors going around from place to place giving these things,” Chapman said. “Never did it use to beanything like this. You never saw anything like this in high school baseball andthe River Parishes with college baseball umpires coming down and giving clinics. Now, in order to keep up, you have got to find out better ways, bettertechnology in order to be a better umpire.”This year’s clinic was more hands-on with less classroom time than in the past.

“I think what it does is it takes the things they do know and brings it out,” Guillie said of the clinic. “They see things on TV or see guys doing differentthings. They see guys run around and get in position and they are not sure onhow they got there, how did they did it. We hold these camps and they get onthe field and see the things come to life.”Of course, making calls still comes down to the umpire’s judgment. But thatjudgment can be improved if an umpire is in a spot to more clearly see the play.

“We can teach some judgement but we can’t be there all the time helping the umpire make every single call,” Guillie said. “We can give you the best angleand the best position to make the proper call. A lot of times plays aremissed because people are not in the right spot and that’s why we try to teach proper positioning and angles.”Ideas about those proper positioning and angles and how to get in them change from time to time, usually starting at the Major League level and filtering down to high school and Little League. Grady, who has been umpiringfor 31 years, sees that the distribution of those new ideas is one of the biggest benefits of the clinic.

“I think one of the key things is that you can pick up anything that has changed, that’s new,” Grady said. “These guys are on the college level andthey get a little more information than we get on the high school level – new Ideas, new thoughts on how to position yourself and get the right angle.”Grady said one of the biggest changes he has seen over those 30-plus years is that more and more umpires are leaving the profession. It’s hoped thatclinics such as the River Parishes Umpires’ will help bring more members in.

One such umpire is Jared Lorio, who is now in his third year as an umpire.

Lorio began going to the clinics to help him improve his work.

“Veterans and younger umpires like myself, you always learn from your mistakes,” Lorio said. “You always try to get better. The players are gettingfaster and smarter and the umpires also have to get faster and be able to adapt to the game.”Guillie agreed that umpires must work to adapt to the game and that like the players themselves, must prepare throughout the year.

“The biggest change is the game is getting bigger and faster. The game isbecoming more successful at the college level. Schools are making money atit. As they are getting more and more successful, they are wanting umpiringto get better. They want the umpires to be in shape, they want them tohustle. They want them to know the rules. I’m not saying they didn’t wantthat before, but now it’s more so. They’ve got to be prepared. “It’s almost like football and basketball, there is no offseason. You areworking camps and clinics in the Fall. You have to work out and stay in shape.I say that’s the biggest thing. May used to roll around and you would worksome summer ball and take it easy and you waited till January. Now you’vegot to be working in the offseason.

That includes high school, where the game is becoming more visible and the intensity is increasing.

“It’s like with anything,” Guillie said. “It starts in the pros, it goes to thecollege level and comes to the high school level. That’s why I admire theseguys that come to these camps. They devote a Saturday of their own timeto come out here and learn and get better. It means they have acommitment to do the right job. There’s a large group of guys here giving upa Saturday before baseball even starts, paying money to be here. That’sdedication and commitment.”That dedication and commitment comes from a love of the game, something that Guillie said is often the foundation of why someone becomes an umpire.

“You have to love the game,” Guillie said. “Ask anybody why they became anumpire and it’s because they love the game. They want to give a greatproduct and that product is umpiring.”The River Parishes Umpire Clinic is usually held the first weekend in February.

Anyone interested in becoming an umpire can contact Grady at 652-2517.

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