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10th May 2005                10th June 2005

 

23rd July 2005

Hey Defensive Specialist

Not a lot to talk about here in the GCL. The move to Vero was not as exciting as it some of our other cities. For starters the hotel we stay in is that bad that when the FSL umpires have a series in Dodgertown they choose to commute for as much as 1 hour to the games every day rather than stay at this hotel. That also means that when they are in town they are not as likely to hang out with us after their games. Not so good as that is usually a lot of fun. The teams over here are pretty good. The baseball seems to be at a higher level than in Lakeland, maybe they are just getting better through the season. The GCL Mets of Port St Lucie have the best record in the league and play like it. Their manager is ex big league catcher Gary Carter, a fiery character that you get a lot of confrontation with, a good manager though. Also the managers from the Dodgers and the Marlins have been known to have their say. We have not had any ejections but there have been a lot of warnings issued and a lot of game management needed to get through our games here. One day you would have an absolute shit fight and the next day it is smooth sailing.

I have had the ‘pleasure’ of two really long games in the two week period. One was a 15 innings 4 hours and 39 minutes with the Nationals winning 5-4 over the Mets. The second was only about 5 days later and was 14 innings 4 hours and 6 minutes with the Marlins winning 9 – 4 after they scored 5 in the top of the 14^th inning. Finally, we were actually tied at 4-4 after the 4^th inning and we had 9 consecutive scoreless innings. The Dodgers though did have their chances, they had runners on third with less than 2 outs no less than 3 times in extra innings and could not score a run to win it.

We have Mitchell Ayres in camp for the Dodgers from Victoria who currently has a shoulder injury and is seeing no game time. The Marlins also have Dusan Ruzic he is currently being used as a relief guy out of the bull pen. He has had a few outings with mixed success.

There is really not a lot to do in Vero, last weekend we made the trek to the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral. We got to do a tour of the centre which included checking out the shuttle on the launching pad. It was pretty kewl to be able to see it before it takes off. The centre as a whole was very interesting, of course it would be a lot more interesting if you were excited about all things space.

Jon Byrne has returned to work behind the plate after recovering enough from his broken hand to get back to work. He still wears a plastic guard on his hand to protect his hand from another hit. Our whole crew was excited to have him back as we get back to normal in terms of working with our partners each day and alternating between the plate and the bases.

Today marks the mid point of our season. With only 54 games it passes by very quickly. In short season there is no all star break or all star game. I think there will be a team named at the end of the season though. I guess it just means we are half way through the season. Tomorrow we move to Sarasota. I am looking forward to it as it was where I spent most of my time in extended spring training. I know the town well and there is plenty to do there. They also have some pretty good beaches. I already know all the teams in the division which makes the transition a little easier. We are getting set for our second set of evaluations. There is an evaluator on the west coast right now. He has seen the other two crews and a lot of Florida State League guys already, we are next.

I hope everything can keep going the way it has done so far, it should be a pretty smooth season. We have not had any major problems yet and we are all getting better with each and every game. Will keep you guys informed.

Talk to you next time.

Travis 

 

10th July 2005

Hey Defensive Specialist,

So we finished up in Lakeland with a rainout. In fact every game in Florida got rained out on Saturday, at least in our league and from what I hear most of the Florida State League games as well. We got hit with the storms associated with Hurricane Dennis that graced the Gulf with its presence on Saturday. We got our night games in at the Braves on Friday night, it was a double header at the Wide World of Sports Complex. We had two very easy games of 2 hours and an hour and 50 mins. Nobody said a word in 14 innings and I am pretty sure we got all our calls right. So it was great that we got through some games without any trouble.

I finished up with my evaluations on Wednesday with my base job. My second plate on Tuesday went well but the evaluator was paying more attention to my partner on the bases. He game me a few little things to work on but nothing major and he was happy with everything overall. My base job he also spent more time with my partner and mentioned two tiny things that he wants me to work on. At least it gives me some goals to work with for my next evaluation. It appears that will be in the next 10 days. Our next evaluator called me this afternoon, he will start in our league tomorrow.

We should be safe at the start because we are the furthest south and because Jon is still only working bases. He has an appointment on Wednesday with an orthopedic surgeon to clear him back to work the plate. It will be welcomed by the rest of the crew who has been working his plate jobs for him. Jon is also itching to get back behind the plate. His hand is still a little tender but it is a lot better and they are going to give him a brace to wear on the field.

So it’s a fresh start in a new town tomorrow. I have the first game in Vero and Jon and his partner are off to Jupiter. In this division we travel about 45 mins North to Melbourne, 30 Mins South to Port St. Lucie and an hour South to Jupiter. The Vero fields are about 5 mins from the hotel. Not bad to get a sleep in on the first day. Although as the crew chief I have to organize Jon’s doctor appointment and check in with all the teams to make sure they have our contact details at the hotel and cell phones (American mobiles) to contact us about rainouts etc. All part of the fun I guess.

From what we have seen in the day at Vero it is a very small beach side town with not a lot to do. In fact the Florida State League Umpires choose not to stay here and commute from another city to umpire games at Vero…so it is not exactly the excitement capital of Florida. As long as we can find a bar for the guys to hang out at and a few decent restaurants it can’t be all that bad. I hear the beaches are half decent so we will have to check those out once the weather improves. Its still the same 30 – 50% chance of rain every day.

That’s about all from us here at the moment.

Talk to you next time.

Travis

 

1st July 2005

Hey Defensive Specialist,

Sorry about the time between diary entries, sit back this is gonna be a long one…

Surprise, surprise extended spring training ended with yet another rain out. So we packed it all up and moved up to Saint Petersburg for a 12 day lay off. Most of the days were spent shopping or relaxing with the exception of three ‘mini-camp’ games we did for the Yankees after the draft before their players left for the short season.

We had a lot of fun. Obviously with the Florida State League guys in town we had a crew to go out with and have some fun in our time off. There were a few late nights and some early mornings. The All-Star game had a party both the night before the game and right after the game that were a lot of fun. I took a lot of pictures of the game. Bright House Field is a great stadium. It is the Spring Training home of the Philadelphia Phillies and the home of the Clearwater Threshers in the Florida State League. The stadium is only 2 years old and has everything you would want from a ballpark. The game started with a light hearted home run derby that saw some very large numbers put up by they guys.

The game itself was nothing special although the crowd of around 6000 was the largest I had seen at a single A game since arriving. The atmosphere was great although not what you would get at a regular season game – a little more festive. The Australian Phillies players were there and I got a chance to catch up with them for the first time this trip, although it appears that they don’t have a car like us and aren’t getting up to much.

I have found that in Minor League Baseball – especially in umpiring that from time to time you get a curve ball thrown to you. I have had my fair share of curve balls this season with all the movement during extended. However when I got a call from then during the break it was a whole new level of ‘curve’. It turns out that my partner in the Gulf Coast League had just been promoted (the second time in a week – they reshuffled the roster after the first promotions) and my new partner was not a driver. In umpiring you nominate yourself as either a ‘driver’ or a ‘rider’, clearly I am a ‘rider’ and so was my partner. This is an unusual situation that rarely presents itself because usually they can reshuffle the roster and get another driver. However in this year there are 5 international umpires in the GCL and we were unable to shuffle the roster. So the way the rules are written, if we are unable to provide a car then it is up to us to rent one at our own expense. That was going to cost around $2500 plus gas. We get money for travel but it would not have covered that and our salaries are not exactly huge. Thankfully after a week of trying to work out a number of different options (one of which included me visiting a friend in Tennessee to get a car) my partner was able to locate a suitable ride for the season.  A 2003 Lancer…it’ll do just fine.

So after all that was sorted out and the partying had finished it was arranged by PBUC for the umpires in our crew to meet at our hotel and for us to all ride down together as I was the only umpire who had been to Pirate City in Bradenton, the venue of our league meeting. All the other guys except the four of us from extended went through PBUC this year and it was kind of like a reunion for them that morning. We got all our stuff loaded up in to all our cars and rode through another huge rainstorm…shocking. It seems to be every other day that we are on the road and have to drive through a massive rain storm. It gets tired pretty fast.

Our League President is Mr Thomas Saffell he is an ex big leaguer that has been running this league for a LOT of years. He is 83 years old or something of that era. He does a very good job although he is very thorough. The meeting kicked off at 4pm and I think we got out of there at around 7:30pm. We covered everything that could happen throughout the year. The big news and the surprise from the league meeting were two fold. The umpires in the league are obviously paired up however at this level we are in three divisions Northern, Southern and Eastern. There are two Crews in each division and each division has one Crew chief. He is in charge of all communications with the teams and league and the hotels. If something needs doing it’s the chief. Well the surprises are that I was named Crew chief of the Northern Division and Jon Byrne is a part of my crew. Whilst he is not my direct partner we are based in the same place for the duration of the season. It’s going to be a lot of fun, we have been on a few trips together and we get along quite well. Plus it’s always nicer to have an Aussie around the place.

My Partners name is Chad Henderson he is 22 and is from Tulsa Okalahoma. He is a nice guy and a pretty good umpire. A lot of the guys here don’t have the same background in the game that we have as they have not been umpiring at the same level as us or for as long as we have. By we I mean the Australians in the game. Chad has been umpiring College and High School ball for a couple of years. Jon’s first partner was Travis Brown 24 from Atlanta Georgia. He was a great guy, funny as hell and a very good umpire. Unfortunately for the crew but great for Trav he got promoted in the first week of the season. He was replaced by Scott Mahoney originally from Oakland California however he now lives in Orlando Florida. We have a great crew, we all get along great and we are looking forward to a great season.

So we opened up in Lakeland and we are in each division for two weeks. From here we go to Vero Beach, it’s about three hours south on the East Coast. Then to Sarasota and back to Lakeland to finish out the season. Opening day for Chad and I was Braves at Yankees. Made all the more special by the fact that the complex fields were wet and we played on field two at Legends field. It was a good game for us no real problems and we got the first one out the way. Jon’s crew had a little more luck and managed to play on the stadium three out of his first four games. They played at Disney on day two and played the stadium there and there third game was at Joker Marchant Stadium. It was a night game. We have about five night games each scheduled this season. Unfortunately for Jon he was working the plate and was hit in the hand by a pitch the catcher did not even touch. It was bad enough for him to leave the game. I was in the stands and had to suit up in his partners gear and complete the game whilst Chad took him to hospital. The initial x-ray was clear and he was put on the DL for two days, however the follow up visit shower a fractured metacarpal in his left hand. Jon was released back to work however he can only work the bases.

Usually in this league we work the plate one day and the bases the next. Jon’s injury means our crews get a little shuffle and I had to redo our schedule for the next two weeks. Now we are faced with a plate, plate base rotation. This is made a little tougher with double headers, when Jon’s crew is faced with a double header his partner has to plate both games. All fourteen innings, that’s if you don’t go extra. My crew has had two rainouts in the last few days and both are passed on to Jon’s crew so there are going to be some tired umpires in our crew next week. We were just rained out today and it appears we were going to get our first evaluation today as well. I called the supervisor to tell him we got banged and he changed his plans to go watch Jon’s game. So I should get evaluated Monday where I have the plate Yankees @ Phillies.

Tomorrow we drive to Bradenton to do a clinic with the supervisor who is in town. We will spend an hour or so working behind the plate on our mechanics and positioning. We have lecture information to get through and some new mechanics to learn on the bases. It should be fun to catch up with the southern crew for the day. Also to get some ‘free’ instruction that doesn’t count to the end of season eval, particularly the day before my evaluation.

So for me at least the season is going well. I have done seven games with three plates and four base jobs. I am happy with how my games are going. The pitching really determines the game times here, I had a 6-5 ball game where I used nine pitchers we played for 2 hours 45 mins. The other games have been better. The managers in this division are all good, I have not had any problems with them and they appear to be happy with my efforts.

That’s about all I got for now. I will write another entry next week.

Talk to you next time.

Travis

 

10th June 2005

Hey Defensive Specialist,

I have a name for you. Tropical Strom Arlene, the first storm of the season. For those that don’t know there is currently a tropical storm (not yet a hurricane) headed over the Caribbean and Cuba, it is headed up the gulf and is expected to hit landfall over Alabama and Georgia sometime tomorrow. The fun thing about this storm is all the weather is to the east of the storm, that is to say…Florida. So we have been getting dumped on with alarming regularity down here in Sarasota and Fort Myers. The fields are sorry and wet. We have played some games but not all of them and the grounds crews don’t want to know. They say if it rains we are done, because they can’t fix it. It rained that hard in Fort Myers on Monday that the field was unplayable in less than 10 seconds. When we played we needed the grounds crew to work on the mounds every half inning, making the games for an extra 45 mins to an hour, nothing like three and an half hours of baseball…

Most of the camps are done now as far as scheduled games go and will play some intra-squad scrimmages weather permitting. We have one more game scheduled for 10am tomorrow in Fort Myers (and hour and a half away) and we get there at least an hour before. The weather is looking like we won’t be playing at the moment. Although the Twins manager Nelson Prada is notorious for wanting to play in any outlook. Will just have to wait and see. Today we went and watched ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’ the latest Angelina Jolie offering. Not bad if I do say so myself. The rest of the day is packing up everything for the move to St Pete after the game tomorrow. Two weeks of fun, frivolity and probable boredom. There is plenty for us to do but a lot more time to fill in.

I think the players have had enough of extended. They are starting to get a little grouchy and whining a lot on the field. Some of them are leaving to travel to their next assignment as early as today so I guess the end was in sight. I also saw a jump in the number of balks we were calling. This in not a phenomenon that should be occurring at the end of extended. A note to all RHP when you throw to first base on a pick off, without stepping off, your ‘free foot’ (left foot) must finish a step closer to first base than it started. Otherwise it is a balk. There are a lot of people who appear to be struggling with that one. Put yourself a step in front of the pros, no pun intended.

Amazingly we managed to get the FSL game in tonight. It was a fairly quick game and the heavens opened about 5 mins after the game had finished. The weather looks fairly bad at the moment with Fort Myers expecting as much as an inch of rain overnight. So I am expecting a call early tomorrow morning to cancel the game. It doesn’t change us having to prepare to work it though. My partner and I have to be packed and checked out by 7:30am to make it down to the game in time so it is a bit of an early wake up call tomorrow. If we get the call we may have some sleep to catch up on.

I also heard today that we may be able to umpire in some mini camp games for the Yankees. That is the camp for the new draftees and anyone else in there squad who is still in camp prior to the rookie season. It should be a good way to pass the days and also help out with the funds. For the next 12 days we are cut off our salaries and put on a $20 per diem for meals and our hotel room is paid for. The $20 is hard enough to stretch when you get fed at the hotel and at the ball park! Let alone no breakfast at the new hotel and no ball park food. So the games will help a lot. We also have to fund the cost of a rental car ourselves or be left stranded at our hotel for 12 days. All the American umpires will have left for home by tomorrow morning.

I thought I would be looking forward to the time off but with the crappy weather we have been having lately and no baseball I would much rather we were working. We had a 48 game schedule shortened to approx 35 games due to the bad weather. A lot of the coaches say it is the most interrupted extended they have seen.

That’s about all for now guys.

Talk to you next time. 

Travis

 

4th June 2005

 

2nd June 2005

20th May 2005

Dear Defensive Specialist,

Sorry for the delay, the new hotel I am in does not have the benefit of free hi speed internet. It is a little harder to get online.

Incase you hadn't guessed I have been moved again. I am back in the Lakeland camp staying at the Royal Palm Inn Conference Centre. WOW. It is a cut under the hotels I have stayed at so far. I guess it is best left at that. the good news is I will only be based here for 2 weeks during the season.

Unfortunately for him one of my colleagues had a death in the family and traveled home for the funeral. I was moved from my camp in Sarasota to here for the rest of this camp (May 31st), there was a rotation of three umpires to fill the gap. The issue was a lack of cars. In the first few years of minor league baseball you are paired into 'crews' with one driver and one rider. One camp was short a driver so they had to move a spare driver. The interesting part is that a few days after the move there was a promotion. An umpire in long A retired and there was a move by an umpire in my crew to replace him. So the umpire that was to go to Sarasota to replace me has just come to Lakeland to cover the driver who was promoted. The only bad thing about this move is my old crew in Sarasota now has 4 umpires and they must work every day until the end of extended spring without a day off. I can return there on the 31st at the conclusion of this camp until the end in Sarasota on June 11th. Then we have 12 days of fun in the sun in St Petersburg Florida until we report to our league meetings.

Right now I am enjoying banging out game after game, day in day out. The pitchers have started to step it up and throw strikes so the game times are coming down. It is getting a little warmer now as we get into the 90's for game time. All the Americans complain, truth is from Australia it is a little easier to adjust to the high temperatures as it is like home. The humidity is a lot higher and I also think that not sitting through winter makes it less of an extreme change.

I have had fewer on field trouble after my 2 ejections in three days. Maybe the change in scenery and teams has made a difference I am not sure. There are a few Australians in the camp, Donavan Hendriks is pitching with the Braves, I had him the other day and he threw 4 innings and was quite solid. The Indians have three Aussies in camp Matt Haynes Pitcher, Josh Roberts Catcher and Chris Clem third base. The guys at the indians had a day out today with the bat collecting 5 hits between them. Juan Gonzalez is also in camp for the Indians trying to work into some kind of shape. He is playing everyday here and putting in the odd right field appearance.

The guys in Lakeland have found a way to beat our food budget problems and have bought a mini BBQ for us to grill out a couple of times a week. You'd be surprised how appealing it can sound after eating at cafeteria's, restaurants and microwave crap every day. A descent steak or grilled fish and corn on the cob goes a long way.

There is also an umpire friendly gym in the area and they let us work out for free for the duration of extended Spring. It all adds up to making the whole experience more enjoyable. Umpires don't have a home town where we are looked after. There are some places like gyms, restaurants and bars that do look after us whilst we are in town. Umpires talk and let each other know of where these places are. It makes like a lot easier.

OK guys. Off to the gym now. I will try to make the next edition a little sooner than the last.

Keep in touch

Travis

 

10th May 2005

Hey Defensive Specialist,

Well it appears I am the go to travel guy in extended Spring Training right now. Today Tuesday was my day off. I haven’t had a real one in a while because of my trip to Lakeland. We were are at Florida State League Game last night – watching the high A umpires and I got a call that one of the umpires in Lakeland has a back injury and I have to travel there to fill in on my day off. Thankfully Wednesday is an off day in Lakeland so it is only for one day, the injured umpire should be active by Thursday for the bases and a plate on Friday, if not then someone else will be headed back. It could be me we don’t know. It was only an hours drive away so its not that bad at all. I was posted at Tigertown in Lakeland. The Crew there looks after games for the Astros, Tigers, Braves and Indians. The worst thing about the appointment is means I have back to back plates and no day off for at least 9 days. Still its hard to complain. The weather here is starting to warm up a little here it was 30 degrees here today with a fair amount of humidity.

The guys are gearing things up for the evaluators at the moment as the word on the wire is that there is one in Tampa which is only 45 mins away from here. So everyone has their clothes pressed and their eyes peeled for the boss in the stands. We are expecting the visit early next week when the FSL is back in town but you never know, they just love to sneak up on unsuspecting umpires.

At the halfway mark for extended Spring all is well. Getting used to working everyday and what you have to gear your body up for each and every day. The money you have to live on (its not great) and the time you have to pass. I am happy with how I am progressing at the moment, my strike zone is getting more and more consistent with each game and I have been doing a lot of work in the field with my positioning for plays. Sounds pretty simple but umpiring is all about angles and positioning. Behind the scenes the other international guys have got there paper work all sorted out but apparently I have not. It was supposed to take 10 days for it to be settled and some 30 days later no dice. If it is not settled before the season then I have to sit until it is. Not good. Hopefully its all going to be ok.

One thing I would like to know is what the players do between extended and the short season? Do they stay in camp or travel to where there team is (if its different) Maybe Mark or Scott can let me know. Jon and I have just been assigned to the Gulf Coast League for the short season. So we get put up in a hotel for the 12 days between extended and the season. We lose our match fees and are left with our meal per diem and the hotel room is covered. Nice way to live.

All the Australians in camp right now are thinking of our compatriot Mitch Graham who was reportedly in a car accident a few days ago. I wont report too much as I have it third hand. I am sure someone in the Phillies camp has more details.

Get well soon Ditcher.

Talk to you next time 

Travis