Interesting Conversation with an ex Minor League Umpire

[Lefty74]

Our son pitches for a D1 team on the east coast. We were at his weekend games 2 weeks ago and had an interesting discussion with a guy sitting next to us. Through the game he came to learn we were from Minnesota and near the end he asked where we lived. When we told him he said he was originally from Iowa. I asked why he was at the game as he never said a word while we sat by him. He told us he was an ex AAA umpire who was hired by the conference to evaluate the performance of the game umps. Not so much balls/strikes or calls but rather how they hustled, kept the pace of the game, etc. Anyway we talked about a lot of things and I asked him about concussions and how they related to umpires. He told me that many umpires get concussions and that at the lower levels they try to hide them as MLB will toss you to the side very quickly if you have those sorts of issues.

 

This umpire, in addition to working evaluating conferences is a part of a group that has developed and is marketing a catcher/umpire face mask that lessens the impact of foul balls. I asked him why everyone wasn't using it and he laughed. Seems major league catchers get between $80-$150k per year for wearing Wilson, Under Armour, etc. Tyler Flowers is currently the only MLB player using it and he gave up $ to do so. The ex ump gave me the website and I took a look at it. Very impressive and If my son was a catcher I'd look at this sort of product. Anything to keep them healthy long term. For anyone interested the site is force3progear.com. I really enjoyed talking with the ex ump and wished I had time to have a couple of beers with him. Lots of good stories in a short period of time and I'm sure I only scratched the surface!

[ashbury]

He told me that many umpires get concussions and that at the lower levels they try to hide them as MLB will toss you to the side very quickly if you have those sorts of issues.

Tossed aside? Or told, "if you're susceptible maybe this isn't the right line of work for you, therefore for your own good we're not renewing your contract"?

 

A fine line, perhaps.

[glunn]

I wish that the Twins would adopt his mask for their catchers.