A Fun Night at the Ballpark
Posted by: Toby Fischer in baseball, education, tags: baseball CSN umpire educationI would like to share my experience last night. I umpire high school baseball. Over the last few years I have been assigned more and more varsity level games. Last night I was assigned a game between two of the better teams in central Ohio. I was exited to get the game, but once I got to the game I became very anxious. As I pull into the parking lot, there sits a production van for a local cable network, Columbus Sports Network. Think of it as ESPN for central Ohio.
This was a positive and negative to me. The coach in me was excited that I could go home, set the DVR (they are playing the game 7 times this week and putting it on the local on demand channel) and have footage to be able to evaluate my work. The human in me was anxious because any mistakes I made would be shown in slow motion over and over.
Skipping to the end of the story…It was a great game, 10 innings 5-2 final score. My partner and I did a great job. Every close call received some oohs and ahhs from the crowd, 50% of the people always think you are wrong (high school parents can be brutal). I look forward to seeing the game to find out if I was right on all of my calls.
Now what I took from this as an educator. How do 15-18 year-olds handle playing on TV. The coach told me the station had been working in the school for a week. Interviewing players and learning all about them. When I asked how the kids handled the distraction, the coach told me it was harder for the coaches than the players. It once again show the difference between these kids and us. If I knew a week in advance I was going be playing on TV, I wouldn’t have slept. They want to be published, to be on TV, and on the Internet. Lets keep pushing to get them there. When our students work hard, they deserve the recognition they get by being “published.”
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