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LLB Datacenter
Last updated
12-23-09 11:24 AM
 
District 51 Umpires
5250 Linden Ct
Palmdale, California
ca
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Wednesday, February 25
Jim's Thoughts from a weekend Mechanics Clinic
A Newbee at a Western Regional Clinic – San Bernardino Friday afternoon I arrived at the Western Regional Headquarters for a weekend Mechanics Clinic. As I exited my vehicle, another umpire carrying his gear to his truck asked me if I was here for the Weekend Mechanics class. I said “Yes”, and without hesitation he led me into the building and introduced me to some of the instructors. I met Oliver; from our Palmdale Clinic last year, and he signed me in and gave me a dorm assignment. I also got some handout materials that covered Umpire Mechanics. I was told to be back in the classroom at 7pm for a briefing and introduction to the weekend activities. I went to my dorm building to put my stuff away and thought I was back in the military. Actually it wasn’t that bad. The dorms are single story buildings that house two teams each. The dorms are divided in half with a team on each side of the building. The coaches & Manager have a separate room on each side and the players have a separate room on each side; each with 7 sets of bunk beds. The players and coaches areas all have their own private entry way into the common bathroom area. It’s not the Holiday Inn, but you aren’t there for the room. It’s kind of like going to Vegas. I don’t usually spend much time in the room, except for sleeping. And that’s the way it is for the clinics and the regional teams when they are there. 7pm and I’m in the training room. We meet our lead instructor and his team. The instructor team was composed of umpires from various locations in California, one from Oregon and two from Arizona. Many had World Series experience and the rest had regional level experience in both baseball and softball. A few umpires had minor league baseball umpiring experience. All-in-all a very experienced crew. After the instructor introductions we got a welcome speech from Bill Carter, Western Region UIC. We then got an overview of what the weekend schedule would be like and covered some basic umpiring skills. 9pm we were dismissed and told breakfast was served at 7am and we needed to be back in the classroom at 7:45am Saturday with mask and indicator. Now remember you’re sharing the bathroom facilities with maybe 10 to 15 people. So you have to plan ahead so you can get to breakfast and be in the training room on time. Believe me, if you like food you don’t want to miss any meal while you are there!! The WR has a new chef and he is fantastic!! He was hired after last year’s Western Regional tournament. Anybody that has been to a clinic or activity since then has raved about his cooking. We had omelets the first morning with hash browns and muffins. Chicken pot pie with rice for lunch. And this was no “pop in the microwave” pot pie. This was homemade!! We had prime rib, mixed vegetables and huge homemade chocolate chip cookies. This is just a sample. The basic training day is broken up into 4 hour sessions. Saturday 7:45am; in the train ing room for a 15 minute briefing on the morning training activities. We then went to the stadium field for some Basic 6 skills and then broke up into 3 groups and rotated through different training stations on the stadium field, practice field and the cages. Lunch……11:30am-12:30pm Saturday 12:45pm; in the training room for a 15 minute briefing on the morning training activities. We then went to the stadium field for some Basic 6 skills and then broke up into 3 groups and rotated through different training stations on the stadium field, practice field and the cages.
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