For as long as I’ve been able to remember, baseball has been a constant presence in my life, whether it be playing the sport as a child or screaming at the TV when the Brewers lose another postseason game in excruciating fashion. 

It’s hard for me to believe at one point in my life, I was in a no-contact relationship with the game that I’ve loved so much. This time period fell in my late middle school years and early high school years when I played for a coach I despised so much that he made me actually hate the game of baseball. 

I could name a variety of incidents that made me hate the game, including when the coach refused to let me pitch even though I pleaded with him on numerous occasions to let me pitch or when he made us run from home plate to foul poles when kids on my team didn’t wear protective athletic cups to practice. 

As much as I despised this coach for his attitude towards me, his relationship and understanding of the rules of the game indirectly led me to fall back in love with the game of baseball. 

One incident I remember is when I laid a bunt down in fair territory. The ball hit me while I was out of the batter’s box and was called out by the home plate umpire. I had no idea that that was the rule and I remember my coach explaining it to me and still not having a clue what the rule was. 

No matter what sport I played following my unsuccessful baseball playing career, that play lingered in the back of my brain as I began to watch baseball again. How did I even want to get into umpiring baseball games in the first place? 

Part of it stemmed from that play in particular and part of it stemmed from my love of the game but I owe it to a website dedicated to all things umpiring that helped spark my intrigue into umpiring and developing my knowledge of the rulebook. 

I’m of course talking about the folks over at closecallsports.com, who dedicate a lot of their free time away from officiating and their day jobs to help educate players, umpires and fans of the game of baseball alike. 

Discovering this unhidden gem of the baseball universe has helped educate me in becoming a better umpire through their unique breakdowns and insight into the perspective of an umpire, whether it be their rules instructional videos or informing us of how to handle or how not to handle an angry manager or player. 

If you asked me five years ago, when I first started umpiring youth baseball games back in my hometown, how to enforce an obstruction call or what runner’s interference was, I would have no idea how to do it. 

But since then, it’s been a nonstop journey of growth and experience for me as an umpire. I have learned trial by fire and by analyzing how other umpires operate at the amateur level and at the professional level has helped give me the motivation to be the best umpire that I can be. 

Becoming an umpire has also given me a fresh perspective on how to watch the game as a fan of the game. While we’re always reactionary at the moment against someone who we’re taught to despise as fans, officiating the sport has helped me realize that we aren’t perfect and that there are certain mechanical reasons for officiating that may cause us to miss a play. 

Whether it be the catcher getting crossed up on a pitch or not taking a proper angle on a close play at first base, there are multitudes of reasons why umpires simply miss plays and experience those plays that make you lose sleep at night and make you feel bad for umpires who go through those missed plays. 

While umpires may seem like an abrasive bunch, who don’t like to tolerate people showing their displeasure, to quote current Major League Baseball umpire Phil Cuzzi, “People only know to hate us. We are a misunderstood group. People don’t really know us, but to love us is to know us.”  

I think Cuzzi’s quote summarizes the profession of umpiring to a T. We aren’t trying to gain notoriety and make the game about ourselves, we are simply doing this because we love the game of baseball and all the imperfections that come with it. 

So harkening back to a few years ago when I was still playing and got called out for being hit with a batted ball in fair territory, if you asked me right after that play that I’d be umpiring games and making those types of split-second decisions I would’ve said you were absolutely crazy. 

But yet again, it takes a special kind of crazy to be an umpire. 

Mikalofsky can be reached at [email protected].