eteran umpires know the symptoms. By late July every game is a chore, every player’s mild complaint a personal affront. The fuse is short and ejections are piling up. Sometimes even before you’re fully aware of the problem, your games just are not fun anymore.

The problem is often called burnout. Amazingly, it’s not at all isolated to July or late-season assignments. In fact, it can happen just a few weeks into any sport season.

Reflections

Umpires, sports officials, get involved in the avocation for many reasons, but two stand out as the most common. There’s a desire to stay “close to the game” when your playing or coaching career is over, and there’s an opportunity to make a little money while being very involved in baseball — or softball, or football, or any sport that comes to mind. See if this career progression rings true to your history.

Early in your career you were forced to focus tremendous attention on learning the rules and unlearning the fables, like “tie goes to the runner” and “base he’s going to plus one.” Wha’d the pitcher just do? Who threw the ball? Where was the runner? Does the run score? Obstruction or interference? Lots of things that are now second nature used to demand total concentration and careful analysis of the exact rule provision. Eventually you were at least comfortable with the rules.

Continued...