After a great career of umpiring both domestic and internationally, it was time to leave England, again. My wife and I had both retired, so we decided to try something different. We packed up our belongings and moved to the USA. My son, daughter-in-law and grandson all came with us too.

I had really enjoyed my umpiring career and had worked with many great people. I still wanted to keep umpiring and really hoped that calling games in the USA would be the pinnacle of my baseball career, little did I know then that it would open my eyes to something different.

We had ended up in Dudley MA, not far from Worcester. I had planned to move to Maine, but eventually decided against it after the first winter in MA. I had made contact with the local umpire association, MBUA and registered with them for the following season. In the February, we had our first umpire clinic, I was surprised as they were teaching the same stuff that I had learned when I first started to umpire many years ago. This was old stuff to me, and we were outside and though the sun was shining, it was still cold at that time of year.

We were all standing around waiting for someone to take charge.  After 40 minutes or thereabouts, we broke up into groups and did a variety of drills which I had done plenty of times before, and so already felt proficient with. This turned out to be the norm for all of the clinics I attended each year before the season started. When I asked about 3 and 4-man systems I was told they were only used for college level ball even though we did tournament play which had some college teams in it.

Through my first season I had the opportunity to work a variety of umpires. Some were older and stuck in their ways, and some were rookies who really had no idea of positioning or signals. I was surprised with the lack of knowledge that some of the older umpires had or quite how much they were willing to overlook. The prime example of this that I can recall happened in my first game, when I was the 1st base umpire. We were discussing before the game how we would work together, and the subject of calling outs on fly balls to the outfield came up. He said that, as he was the plate umpire, he would make those calls - even though he was going to be further away from the play. It didn’t make any sense to me, but we did his way all the same.

My second season started out more or less the same as the first one did. The first clinic of the year had exactly the same content as the one the season before but thankfully it was indoors this time! I had made this suggestion in the build-up so that rather than having a group  of people standing around freezing outside freezing their butts off, we could be inside and be able to conventrate on the course itself rather than how cold it was.

It was during this second season that I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was put on medication that zapped my energy and made me tire really easily.  As maybe you can imagine, this was a rough season for me, but I just gritted my teeth and persevered. Maybe some of that of that “Keep calm and carry on” British spirit had rubbed off on me after all those years on that side of the pond?

It did become clear to me though that this season would be my last as an umpire such was the toll it was taking on me at this time.

It felt much the same as when I decided to stop playing. I was no longer physically able to give my all on the field, and I’ve never been one to put in only a mediocre effort. I hadn’t worked this hard over the years to be remembered in such a way. I wanted to go out while I was still at the top of my game. I’ve had doubts about this decision from time-to-time but as the years roll on, I am assured that I made the right decision.

These days my summers are spent watching games (and criticizing umpires just like I did in my playing days), and though I can no longer play or umpire, I am still in love with the game. I also seek out opportunities to share my knowledge with anyone who wants to play or umpire, or even just to learn more about baseball. In this way, I am still able give back to the game I love.