He loves to call 'em
By DEBRA RECH
For The Press, 609-463-6719
Published: Wednesday, April 09, 2008
STONE HARBOR - Jack Leisenring has been a volunteer umpire for Little League baseball and softball for 15 years. Leisenring will spend much of this season as a volunteer umpire with the Middle Township Little League in addition to umpiring high school and summer leagues.Leisenring, who had spent seven summers in Stone Harbor, moved from Connecticut to the borough full time last year. He was a salesperson for many years, working his way up to National Sales Training Director for Olympic Stain, then opened his own business in 1992, where he provided training in sales, leadership and customer service, a job he kept until retiring last year.Leisenring, who has four children, said his umpiring sideline began when someone asked him to help umpire Little League games and then promptly left him to recruit, train and schedule umpires for the local Little League. "I kind of had it dropped in my lap, and I knew nothing about being an umpire at the time," Leisenring said. "But the bug for umpiring hit me hard, and from that time on, I took every clinic, every class on umpiring that I possibly could to improve. I first went to Little League Umpire School in Bristol, Conn., got certified as an umpire and later went on to district games, state and regional games. I also was certified through the Amateur Softball Association and attended their national school. Other umpire clinics and schools followed to help me sharpen my skills and knowledge."Leisenring umpired games while working in Connecticut and now will devote much of his time to being an umpire in Cape May County, a volunteer position. He is in charge of training more than 20 other volunteer umpires this season.
"Middle Township is in their third year as a chartered Little League," Leisenring said. "This will be my first year with them, so I'm not sure yet how many games I'll be doing over the summer. But I've done up to 15 games in a week, four in one day. It all depends on the skill level and age of the girls or boys playing the game. With younger kids, it could be several hours, but the more skilled the players are and older they are, games can take less time."Leisenring says there is a lot to umpiring, which can really make it a challenging career/hobby."You have to be very attentive to every detail of the game," Leisenring said. "You constantly have to be thinking ahead as to what could possibly happen. You have to be ready to make a call and then stand by it. There are times when the coach or manager challenges a call, and you have to do an instant replay in your head and know the rule. Sometimes you have partners and that is where they come in, to help decide a call, but often, you're on your own."Liesenring said umpires have to develop a thick skin."The crowd often loves your or hates you depending on the call, but you learn to ignore comments from the crowd and just keep on going," Leisenring said. "Parents can be very emotional at games, but they see the game from their perspective, the coach sees it from his perspective, and I see it from my perspective, and you have confidence in your calls. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to eject someone from the game because they argued too much with me. Basically people are respectful of the umpires and what they do.."Exercise and being around children is another reason Leisenring loves to umpire. What's odd about Lisenring's hobby is that he never played baseball or softball."I was afraid the ball was going to hit me, so I played football instead," Leisenring said with a laugh. "That's kind of an oxymoron, but that's how it was. And of my three daughters, two played softball for a while but not that much, so it's unusual that I'd go into this as a hobby. I also love to train new umpires. That's where I put my career as a sales trainer into effect. Whether you train someone in sales or to be an umpire, it's exciting for me to show someone the skills I've learned and follow them as they grow. I do this just for the love of umpiring. I always have the best seat in the house."The hardest part about umpiring, according to Leisenring, is keeping his emotions in check during a game."You have to not get too involved and learn to let comments roll off your back," Leisenring said. "You just have to keep focused. I also know that you can never call a perfect game. I've been doing this for 15 years and it hasn't happened yet. The best part are the times both sides, both coaches, come to you after a game and say, 'You called a great game,' That doesn't happen that much, but when it does, that feeds me. I just love the game and the challenge of umpiring." To e-mail Debra Rech at The Press:DRech@pressofac.com
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