So I mentioned yesterday that my daughter Casey and I would be umpiring some low-stress scrimmages together. This was *the first time* that Casey ever umpired.

The age group of these games was 14U, the same age group that Casey is coaching for her club. Some really high quality players on 3 teams yesterday and, quite frankly, at least two of those teams could beat quite a few high school varsity teams in the area.

I decided the best way of doing this was to take the first two plates and give Casey the last one. She could get her feet wet on the bases and all three teams would get in at least a game before Casey took the plate.

She did great on the bases. She has really good judgment – she got every call that I saw right in the two games, including some really close plays at first base. No hesitance, and confident signals. Not much voice, but that will come later.

Then time for the third game, and I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous. Working the plate is a whole ‘nother thing from working the bases.

I had no reason to be nervous. Casey went back there and within 2 pitches corrected her head height and over the course of 90 minutes missed a total of two pitches. She was cute — on the one she started immediately gesturing this whole “my bad” thing, which we did talk about on the way home – at the time I was laughing, though. The other one was a pitch at the top of the zone I though she could’ve gotten, but didn’t. So 1.5 pitches, maybe?

Being a catcher of some really good and fast pitching the past few years, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but maybe there’s just a little truth in the “those that play have an edge” over those that didn’t, at least initially. Once someone’s been doing it for 5+ years, though, I think that advantage goes away. One can learn to be a great official, despite little playing or coaching experience.

One thing Casey’s club does that I really like is that they teach her how to call pitches and then, during the games, *she* calls them. Most other organizations have a coach calling every pitch, mainly through wristcards. I have no idea how that teaches the players anything other than to “throw what I tell you.” As an umpire, it delays every pitch for a lot of teams. For me, it’s too much coach involvement at levels that should be preparing kids on how to do it themselves, but maybe that’s why I’m a parent and umpire and not a coach.

Anyway, while Casey was masterfully handling balls and strikes, I had every possible weird play during my 2 plates and my game on the bases. I had obstruction, 2 interferences (one batter backing out of the box on a catcher’s throw to third and a runner crashing into the shortstop on a ground ball), a fair batted ball hitting a runner coming off third base (this is why you are supposed to advance in foul ground), an infield fly that dropped and caused chaos, and a looping pop between home and third that touched the fielder fair, rolled foul, and everyone stood there while I emphatically pointed it fair. Whew.

My kid – she’s pretty stoic about some things. When I asked her if she liked it, she said “I liked the plate more. The bases are kinda boring.” She was less stoic when I divvied up the cash from the day. Somehow we ended up with a bit more than promised, and we each ended up with $135. I tried reminding her we just bought her coaching shoes (she and the head coach are going to wear the same shoes) and asked for the money back and she just laughed.^[1]I spent the rest of the night nursing my soreness and attending an association dinner. Casey got home and did her 500 daily jumps with a jump rope. Oh to be 17 again.

We should be honest with ourselves when it comes to the motivation for officiating. I’ve had some arguments with people who have said “we all do it for the kids.” I have shrugged and said, “Maybe you do it for the kids, but you shouldn’t put your motivations on anyone else.”

Some officials do actually do it for the kids. For most of us it’s *a* reason. But let’s not pretend that this mindset is somehow more noble than those who umpire for the money, for, the challenge, for the exercise, for the camaraderie with other officials, or *any* other reason.

I started in college, where I did it for beer and pizza money. 35 years later, I no longer worry much about getting paid, other than (1) as a sign of how officials are or are not being respected and (2) realizing that I need to check my privilege and understand that a great number of officials rely on their officiating income to pay bills or make their lives a bit better.

But for a 17-year-old without a job (she’s either practicing or coaching 4-5 days a week so we’ve been OK with that) $135 is enormous and I made it clear that this money comes with no strings – she’s earned it and should feel free to spend it however she wants. My guess is it will go towards more clothes and restaurants, which is perfectly fine. She earned every penny.

And maybe that needs to be more of the messaging. Maybe a little less of this “stay close to the sport you love” and a little more “you can make more money being around a sport you love than you can working some retail job.”

As someone who already was officiating 18 years when Casey was born, yesterday fulfilled a lifetime (Casey’s lifetime) dream I’ve had of working with her, and nobody will ever take that away from me. I hope she saves me some tickets when she umpires the Women’s College World Series someday.