Turning Soft After Years of Hardball : Citing Variety of Reasons, Many High School Umpires Making Switch

Harvey Inouye felt it was better to switch than fight.

Fed up with high school baseball, the longtime umpire decided a few years ago that he’d had enough of mouthy coaches and players, incessant pickoff attempts and games that seemed to drag on forever.

“It was getting to be too much,” Inouye said.

No problem. Inouye stopped umpiring baseball and crossed over to softball, a sport that offered more relaxed conditions, shorter hours and almost equal pay. He was umpiring both sports when he dropped baseball.

In the years since, many other baseball umpires have crossed over to softball, though most choose to work both sports. The reason most give is time. While an average high school baseball game takes between two and 2 1/2 hours, the average softball game is played in about 1 1/2 hours, umpires said. A pitchers’ duel in softball can wrap up in close to an hour.

“I gave up doing baseball basically because of the length of the game,” said Inouye, 53, of Canoga Park. “Softball is a much-quicker game. You’re going to have your lengthy games, but when you have two good teams involved it’s much quicker.”

Inouye, who umpired baseball for 12 years before switching exclusively to softball, also was put off by argumentative players and coaches.

“I guess it was too much TV,” Inouye said. “Everybody thought they were a superstar. Anything that was called against them, they felt they should argue the point. It got to be a problem. You do see some of that on the women’s side, but not half as much as with the guys.”

Terry Stoller, president of the Valley unit of the California Baseball Officials Assn., said the number of umpires crossing over to softball has increased significantly in recent years. He estimated that almost half his unit’s 110 members also work as softball umpires, including himself.

Stoller, 37, said that’s a big difference from when he began umpiring in the late 1970s. He remembers the days when softball umpires were in such short supply in the Valley, the sport had to recruit baseball umpires to work high school games.

“They were letting baseball umpires cross over with only one softball (rules) meeting,” Stoller said.

How times have changed. No longer are relaxed requirements needed to induce baseball umpires to work softball games. In fact, some of the Southland’s most-experienced umpires are calling balls and strikes in softball.

Dale Williams, an NFL official and commissioner of NCAA Division I baseball in Southern California, added high school softball to his umpiring schedule five years ago. He has officiated two Super Bowls, and was an umpire at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and in seven College World Series. He’ll make his eighth trip to Omaha this season.

Considering Williams’ impressive resume, some might find it surprising that he would want to umpire softball. But Williams, 55, said he needed a break from the physical demands of umpiring college and high school baseball. He balances his weekly schedule between college baseball and high school softball.

“A lot of guys who have been around for a long time have moved over to softball,” he said. “It’s a chance to do something different, and the games are so much quicker.”

Tony Cuppari, who assigns prep umpires for baseball and softball in the Valley, said older umpires like softball because “it seems easier.”

“A good umpire who seeks competition wants to stick with baseball,” Cuppari said. “Those who are more into it for the money or a more relaxed situation, pick softball. It’s not as competitive, nor do you experience the pressure you do in baseball. That’s not to say softball games are a piece of cake. You have some very competitive softball games.”

Williams said softball games are less demanding for umpires because the bases are 60 feet apart, instead of 90 feet for baseball, and runners can’t leave a base until the pitcher releases the ball, thus negating the need for pickoff throws that can slow down a baseball game. Also, girls are generally more well-behaved than boys, umpires said.

Although he enjoyed umpiring high school baseball, Williams said he became increasingly frustrated by long games and the resistance to time-saving rules proposals.

“One of the things that turned me off was the over-coaching in (high school) baseball,” Williams said. “Coaches want to call every pitch from the dugout. There are signals going on all the time to different players. With all these defensive signals, they attempt more pickoffs now.

“The over-coaching has affected the length of the games. You used to be able to do a high school game in not more than two hours. Now they go 2 1/2 to three hours. I think that has turned off some of the veteran umpires.”

In an effort to speed up the game, high school baseball adopted a batter’s-box rule this season. The rule prohibits a batter from leaving the box except in certain situations, cutting down on unnecessary delays. Those who break the rule are given an automatic strike.

“What players were doing, they were walking halfway up to the third-base coach’s box to pick up signs,” Williams said. “Now they have to stay in the box.”

Williams suggests another way to reduce the length of baseball games is to have catchers call pitches rather than coaches, as he did as a catcher at San Fernando Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge) in the 1960s.

But tactics have changed, and many umpires don’t see a willingness on the part of coaches to give up control. With the overwhelming support of coaches, the Southern Section Council voted down an umpires’ proposal to institute a mandatory “mercy rule” in baseball this season. The proposed rule called for a game to be called if a team was ahead by 10 or more runs after five innings.

Baseball and softball coaches have the option of adopting the mercy rule under National Federation rules, but few practice it.

“For umpires, it’s a safety issue,” Stoller said of the mercy rule. “I have seen a lot of kids get hurt because after 10 runs, a lot of kids aren’t trying as hard. They’ve lost their concentration.”

Coaches, though, argue that seven-inning games provide a better chance to play substitutes. Coaches also maintain that if scores get out of hand, games can be terminated by mutual consent. And there’s always the chance a team can come back from a large deficit.

“All I ever hear from coaches is that they don’t want (a mercy rule),” Stoller said. “I’m a firm believer that coaches should not administer their own sport. They have too narrow of a focus. What’s good for their program is not always good for the overall structure.”

On the other hand, coaches contend that umpires calling for the mercy rule are motivated by self interest. Shorter games mean less time on the field.

“I know coaches are saying officials want to get in and out of there for the money,” Stoller said. “For a lot of guys, money is the issue. But for a lot of guys, it’s not.”

Said Rudy Ramirez, a veteran umpire: “Once you become an official, you’re an official until the Good Lord calls you.”

Ramirez nearly got the call last year. Days after experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath while umpiring a baseball game, he suffered a heart attack and later underwent triple-bypass surgery.

Rather than give up a favorite activity, though, Ramirez adopted a more healthy lifestyle and returned to umpiring this season. The 61-year-old Simi Valley retiree works several games a week, divided between baseball, his first love, and softball, which he began umpiring three years ago.

Money does not motivate Ramirez, although he says it’s not a bad way to supplement an income. Home-plate umpires earn $48 a game in baseball and $40 a game in softball. Base umpires make $44 and $38, respectively.

“It does bother some of the (baseball umpires) that they work a lot more for not much more money,” Ramirez said. “For me, I’m just out there for the exercise.”