Universitv Daily Kansan/Wednesdav. Aq. 19, 1987
11
Softball umpire:no thin skin need apply
By KEITH ROBISON
Staff writer
It was like putting the convict in charge of the prison.
The man that led his high school basketball team in technical fouls is a softball umpire in Lawrence.
Swarts has been on both sides of player-official disputes.
Alan Swarts, Lawrence, is a KU systems coordinator for the com-
panion of the Umpires also the umpires' supervisor for the Umpires' Association in Lawrence.
"When I was in my younger years, I was always the first to give the officials a hard time. In high school basketball, I led the team in technical fouls for three years straight," he said.
His negative evaluations of other people's officiating led him to try it
"I got into it because I thought I could do a better job," he said.
About 240 men's, women's and children's jobs.
It takes 45 to 50 umpires to keep them honest.
Each team pays a $245 entry fee to participate, said Julie Sharp, a secretary in the city Parks and Recreation department.
Homeplate umpire Dean Sage, Lawrence, calls a player out in a game at Lyons Field in North Lawrence. Sage has been an umpire for the city for five years. He works for the Santa Fe railroad.
She said about 12 to 18 members were on each team and each team played 14 games.
That means between 2,800 and 4,320 players play more than 1,680 games.
Swarts said umpires made from $7 to $12.50 a game, "depending on the type of ball, the experience and the level of play.
"They average two to three nights a week at about four games a night. The veteran officials and the good first-year officials are invited to work weekends in tournaments put on by teams and special groups."
He said officiating required an ability to ignore verbal abuse.
"You have to take derogatory comments about yourself, your wife, your mother, your intelligence and your job. You can't do it unless you enjoyed it," he said.
Joe Bellinger, Lawrence, works as
an insurance agent weekdays and as an ampire evenings and weekends. Bellinger also is a player for the Patterson Liquor team. He said he got into umpiring for the same reason as Swarts.
"I was rankled sometimes at officials and thought I could do a better job," he said. "Honest to God, sometimes I think that they were better. I'll blow a call and go home that night and think about it. I think about how it affected the game."
He has been an umpire four years.
Bellinger said he had played baseball from the fourth grade through high school.
"Then for five years I didn't play."
he said. "Somebody asked me to play on their (softball) team and I thought it would be fun. That was in 1975.
The positions in softball are the same as in baseball, except there are four outfielders in softball and three in baseball.
Bellinger said one of the most memorable and embarrassing things that has happened to him as an umpire occurred during a women's state tournament game in McPherson.
"It was only my second year and I was umping the bases," he said. "A line drive was hit right at me, so I was running backwards to get out of the way of the ball and the second baseman
"I tripped on the edge of the grass between the infield and the outfield. The second baseman caught the ball and threw to first to catch the runner off for the force-out. I had to make the call lying on my back, on the ground.
"All the attention was on me and not on the play. I'm sure my face was really red when I got up and dusted myself off."
Bellinger said that he umpired mainly for enjoyment, but that some aspects of the game annoyed him.
"My pet peeve is catchers that don't catch the ball. The plate umpire depends on the catcher a lot. If he misses the ball and it bounces back up, it doesn't have to hit you very hard to take your breath away."
dent, said he had been playing softball since 1970 and had played and coached in the Lawrence city league 13 years.
Knute Pittenger, Lawrence resi-
He said he was satisfied with the officials in Lawrence.
"I don't have any problems with them. I'm not sure you can expect a heaf of a lot, they're not getting rich. As long as they know the game and don't determine its outcome, they're all right.
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