![]() Being on the road so often can be exhausting, but each city has its own perks. Kellogg used to plan his through the All-Star Game in July, and book flights and hotels for the remainder of the season during late spring. We’re a crew of four we travel all summer long,’ they don’t realize that.”Īfter each crew receives their schedule in March, a travel agency usually helps them book all their accommodations for a big chunk of the season. “So when you meet people and you tell them, ‘Oh, no, we travel. “There’s, I think, a misconception that we live in the cities we work,” Kellogg said. Unlike the teams themselves, umpires don’t have a home stadium they bounce from city to city for the entire season. It might be more difficult for umpires to practice their preached impartiality if they spent most of their time officiating for a particular team, but they don’t. “Some of my best friends in the world are umpires that I've worked with through the years.” 3. “You just kind of develop as a brotherhood,” Kellogg said. “You might think that working third base is kind of a night off or you could catch your breath, but you soon find out that’s not the case because you could have one play that you've gotta be ready mentally and in the right position at times,” Everitt said.Īnd, yes, they're a team off the field, too. Being involved in every pitch makes home plate especially challenging, but the other three spots call for ceaseless concentration, too. It’s kind of a cool thing.”Įach crew comprises four umpires, and they’re stationed at a different base each game-home plate, then third base, then second, then first. “One guy goes out, the other guy fills the spot, another guy moves up, and then they have these plays and they’re adjusting their angles and everything is just moving in sync. “When a crew is working together, and you’re able to see it from a different perspective, like above in a press box. Fans may not always pick up on how calculated their movements are, but any umpires in the crowd probably will. Much like shortstops shift to second base during certain double plays, MLB umpires know how to cover each other so everyone has the best vantage point possible for each play. Brad Mangin/MLB Photos via Getty Images MLB umpires work as part of their own team.Įveritt (second from left) with his crew before an Oakland Athletics game in 2014. I’m a fan of the game and a fan of the umpire profession, but no particular team or player.” 2. “There’s a difference between being a fan of the game the Orioles or the Yankees or whatever the case may be. But he no longer has any special affinity for its eponymous team. “I love sports, and I’m a fan of other teams in different sports, but as far as baseball, no, I'm really not a fan anymore of any of them.”Įveritt, who grew up in New Mexico, chose his own favorite team-the Baltimore Orioles-based solely on its mascot. “You lose that very early on,” Kellogg, who grew up as a Detroit Tigers fan, explained to Mental Floss in 2021. MLB umpires don’t have favorite teams.Īs hard as it is for baseball fans to believe that umpires manage to stay impartial in a sport they love so much, relinquishing their favorite teams from childhood happens pretty much automatically-and long before they reach the big leagues. Read on to find out how umpires cope with mouthy managers, what they do during the off-season, and more fascinating behind-the-plate insights. They wear blue or black, they’re stationed at strategic points around the diamond, and they ignore a lot of verbal abuse from fans who feel untouchable when shouting grievances from the stands (or on Twitter).īut beyond making calls and ejecting the occasional agitator, what does the job really entail, and what does it take to do it well? We spoke to Mike Everitt and Jeff Kellogg, who both became MLB umpire supervisors in 2020 after more than two decades of officiating in the league themselves, including a handful of World Series each. Even if you’re not Major League Baseball’s most devoted follower, you probably know a few things about MLB umpires right off the bat.
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