At the WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup Group B qualifier, it’s an international affair for everyone on the diamond.
With six teams from all over the world, the WBSC also went international to find umpires to call the games at the tournament this week.
Leigh Evans is the WBSC Umpire Director for the Group B qualifier and traveled from Melbourne, Australia to be in attendance in Prince Albert this week.
Evans says each umpire has to go through various stages of progression to get a chance to call games at an international level.
“They usually get accredited, so most federations have an accreditation system and once the federation thinks they’re at a level of certification for WBSC, then they can request to be assessed. They usually have a WBSC umpire seminar every couple of years in different regions. They’ll come along, do some seminars, do some theory, do some on-diamond work and then be assessed on at least one plate, first base, second base, third base and then providing they can get the points system, then they get to pass. They’ll usually come in through the junior system, be assessed by umpire directors like myself, fine tweak some little bits and then they might end up at a more senior event.”
Umpires have been flown into Prince Albert this week from all over the world. The list of countries includes Canada, the United States Czech Republic, New Zealand and Australia.
Evans says it’s a balance of making sure that enough umpires are from the host country, but also having neutral umpires for all games.
“We try to weigh up the budget constraints of flying people, certainly flying someone from New Zealand and Australia, so the Oceania group, including myself, there’s a lot of money involved in that, but they’ll usually try to get at least three people from the (host) country. This is Canada, so we’ve taken three and then we’ll get a couple from the US and then pick one or two from different areas. Once we get to the worlds, that’s where it gets a bit more difficult. We don’t have USA as a team here, we don’t have Australia as a team, so those umpires become neutral easily.”
“Usually, we stay away from putting them on their own countries (games). Not because they would be biased, it’s just so that we get the feeling and everybody thinks that we’re being totally unbiased.”
One umpire on the field this week is Jan Hora, who lives in the Czech Republic. Originally from Prague, Hora says it is special to get the chance to call games featuring some of the world’s best players.
“It’s a very great opportunity for me, a good experience, I’ve been here already in 2018 for the Junior Worlds, so this is the second time in Prince Albert for me, and it’s always a great opportunity for me to get experience with the crew like this.”
After getting the experience at the Junior Men’s in 2018, Hora says the men’s game tends to play a lot faster with more experienced players.
“The young guys are quick, are very good players but are not so experienced as these guys because these guys are playing mainly for 10, 20 years so they’ve got a lot of experience. They are stronger, they are faster and they know more about the game. The young guys are sometimes more handled by the coaches but these guys are handled by themselves.”
The experience to call a game at an international tournament can be invaluable for umpires. Hora says the opportunity to interact and share experiences with other umpires has been one of his favorite elements of working games at the international stage.
“It’s always a nice experience, because in every country, we’ve got small differences in the umpiring, but in total we are on the same page, because the umpires has to look like each other from all over the world. It’s a very nice experience, especially sharing the knowledge and sharing the experience among guys like we are.”
The WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup Group B qualifier runs through Sunday at Prime Ministers’ Park.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
