Umpire Clinic

Well, the new baseball year is now 8 days away and with that, umpire trainings have begun.  Last night we had our first half of the umpire training for all the parents and team volunteer umpires and I must say that it was pretty fun.  It was Chris, Hawaii's favorite son Steve and I.  I ended up leading most of it but Steve and Chris chimed in when needed and helped with illustrations.
The format ended up being we went over the local rules first, then we went over the do's and don't's of being an umpire.  After that segment, I wanted to get everyone to look in the rulebook so I gave them 17 common game scenarios and told them to find the rule to back up their ruling in the green book.  This lead to many good discussions on rules -- although it did not cover all of the rules which was ok.  Like I said, I wanted them to get familiar with the book and realize that it was not a foreign language.  This will lead to them reading it and hopefully catching the umpire bug.  It's a good flu.
Saturday is the on the field portion of the umpire clinic.  Chris and Steve probably won't be there so it looks like it may be all me this time.  I'm ok with that but I always like having that backup in case I need some correction (which happens) or some additional insight that I may miss.  2 (and 3) are definitely better than one in this case.
I can't wait for next Saturday!  Opening day!