I hope everyone had a great week and is enjoying their day of rest today. Sundays (when we're able to rest after a hard working week) seem to be so many people's favorite day of the week and I am no different. Especially when you throw church, a nap, and good food in there.
Week 3 is now over! Talk about moving fast! Week 3 seemed to move very quickly with 2 days of heavy rain that kept us inside, 4 tests, and the first round of Camp Games. We are now approaching Week 4 and the instructors have officially begun evaluating the students- taking a hard look at who will be selected to go to PBUC in March. Camp Games, which are situational games that the instructors act as fungo hitters and managers, are the main evaluation tool over the final 2 weeks. As I mentined last week, these games do get intense. Over the first round however, we have been temporarily saved from arguments and strange plays- the first round of games were very basic. No instructors have come on to the field and argued for 5 minutes with their pants off yet! (happened last year).
Jim Evans is such a great educator and understands how important it is to get students to learn to face the real things that happen in professional umpiring. It is not a road of glory- there are people that often hate you and your calls- you need to have the skills to defuse situations where strong emotions are present. We have the concentration drills at the end of each day and we had a new test of concentration during each of our classroom tests that begun in week 3. Ten minutes after handing us our test on Tuesday, Jim brought out a boom box that was playing a very loud audiotape and then loud rock music. "You think that games are going to be quiet out there? You think that you will be able to just tell the fans to be quiet so you can focus? You guys need to learn how to focus," Jim said as he turned on the boom box.
My first camp game went ok- I was able to not have any "big" mistakes, and I am glad to get the first one out of the way. In camp games, you are selected to work a certain full inning (innings in camp games can be anywhere between 3 outs and 8) with a partner- one half inning as the plate umpire and one as the base umpire. You work your game with an instructor hitting and calling out the situation (ie- Men on first and 3rd, 1 out) and 5 instructors evaluating your every move. What is great about the games is the immediate feedback you get from the instructors. As soon as your full inning is done you head down the foul line for a one on one evaluation of everything you did well and everything you did wrong (or didn't do). To be honest, I was a little more nervous than I thought I'd be for my first game, but it went pretty well. The instructor gave me several things I need to do next time and things I did wrong- most of which were small adjustments that only instructors would notice. As I said before, in umpiring, each step is meaningul and purposeful- there is a set of specific footwork for each situation depending on number of outs, runner combinations and ball placement.
Here's an interesting way I've viewed my feedback so far- The feedback I've got so far is positive but not positive. I've had a few instructors come up to me with little "Let's get it together" type comments and "Your'e better than that." Based on the feedback I've heard them give some other students, I like the comments I've got so far. Here's how I see it (as you can tell all the umpires here are in the dark so far on how they stand so we are forced to make assumptions and go off of feelings! haha) : comments like "You're better than that" are very affirming- it shows that they see potential, but you just had a bad rep. I have been that they see the potential in me, and will be watching me closely. A funny but positive feedback from one of the instructors: He pulled me aside and told me I missed a few hairs shaving right below my nose, he said "You know you can turn over a Mach 3 razor and get those." I said "Yeah I noticed I've been battling those the last 2 days", and he said, "No- you've been battling those for 3 weeks......" Shows they are taking a look at me- haha!
We also had one-on-one interviews with a few instructors this week. During this time, they asked us pretty basic questions about our background, our lives back home, what's been the most difficult thing at school so far. It was a time for them to get to know us, and see how we communicate off the field. It is during these types of evaluations where I am glad I have some people skills and went through all of those classes in college speaking in front of people.
Two other guys and myself were able to go to church this morning- one was Episcopalian from Philidelphia, one was a Texas Baptist, and me. It's been great to have fellowship with people from all backgrounds of faith during Baseball Chapel on Wednesday and church today. During times when we feel like we have so much weight on our shoulders it is amazing to have fellowhip where that is lifted off us by God!
Week 4 in my opinion is going ot be the most important week. During this week, there will be several camp games-in my opinion many of the decisions for PBUC will be made this week. If not finalized, there will be very strong impressions made. If someone has a great week it may be difficult to wipe that away if a bad game or two happens in week 5. I need everyone's prayers for this week- the realization of actually making a decision if I am selected of pursuing a career in umpiring has begun to emerge. There are still 2 very important weeks coming up- I know God has a great plan for me and all of us here. Whether it be doing so well here that pro ball is where I go, or doing well enough that I can go to pro ball but deciding it is better to not pursue, or if there are other people down here that do so well because pro umpiring was meant for them. Lives can dramatically change after this school, so myself and the other guys here need everyone's prayers for us to listen to Him during these last few weeks.
I hope everyone is doing well- I love you guys.
Taylor
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