January Preview New Intro
===
Patrick (2): [00:00:00] And another advantage of the podcast, as well, is that it allows me to bring in guests who can provide more expert level and advanced material than I possibly could bring on my own. And with my current focus being NFHS baseball, I want to bring in leaders who are highly involved at other levels. So, on that note, I want to share that the first guest on the show will be
Hey, what's up everybody, welcome into the Pre Game Podcast, I'm Patrick Faerber, and today, we're talking about the January lineup of content across Umpire Classroom and Referee, As well as a couple of new segments I'm working on for the 2025 season that I want to get your input on. That includes a couple of hopefully recurring guest spots with some of the higher ups at various levels of umpiring.
And I'd like to get your input on what you'd like to be [00:01:00] covered in that mixed content, as well as what you'd like to see on the YouTube channel and in the magazine. Now, before I get into that, remember, wherever you're listening to this podcast, go ahead and rate and review us, uh, share us with an umpire friend.
If you're watching on YouTube, congratulations, we've got a lot of content coming for you this season that is unique and exclusive to YouTube. So, go ahead and subscribe, hit that notification button below, and And you'll know when everything drops. Okay, so let's get to the magazine first. Of course, for anyone that currently does not get it, you can subscribe to the magazine independently at Referee.
com, but the vast majority of our readers join through the National Association of Sports Officials. If you do that, you get it mailed to you every month, along with the digital versions through the NASON. Now, for starters, I want to give you all some insight into how the baseball section is produced, and my goal for the content.
First of all, I'll point out that the content in the magazine is very much [00:02:00] exclusive to the magazine, and I do assume most of you are capable of reading, so You'll be able to go through the magazine and actually get it. But here, I want to explain to you more so the origin of how each story got into the magazine, as well as get some of your feedback.
Traditionally, in the baseball section of the magazine, we get to feature three main stories every month. We aim for one that is on the rules at the professional, collegiate, and NFHS levels, another that is focused on mechanics in either 2, Umpire systems, And then a philosophy article, which is a broad category, but includes subjects like game management, advancing in your umpire career, and things of that nature.
So, for January, the rules one was pretty simple, and we focused on the biggest rules changes in the last five years of NFHS baseball. Now, this definitely only focused in on the NFHS rules, which is not necessarily ideal [00:03:00] for the magazine, but I think it's so important to highlight these changes.
Especially given that some of these were pretty big, and I don't wanna say traditions, but certainly what many thought of as highlights of what had to be addressed as an NFA Gen empire, such as jewelry rules being simplified and the implementation of the player dh. So these are all some really big changes to umpiring at the NFHS level.
So we just need to make sure everyone is on the same page. Now, on the mechanic side, we dug into plays at the plate. Now, this is something that I've wanted to break down previously, but just haven't been able to fit it into the production schedule. But, we got a great instructional article submitted by the leadership team at United Umpires that really broke down the fundamentals of Plays at the Plate.
And I was able to then get our referee team to provide some mechanograms that accompany the lesson. And, I think, personally, [00:04:00] from a written, print article, this is probably the best content that has been put out on the topic of Plays of the Plane. And this is something that, especially among veteran umpires, is often poorly done at many levels.
I was talking with Stu Hardenstein from Little League Baseball, and this is one of their points of emphasis this year. Teaching umpires to work the wedge by getting to the third baseline extended and then working off the catcher's hip. So the need for education on this is huge at all levels, and it's surprisingly not included in most manuals such as the CCA and NFHS manuals.
So, hopefully, y'all really like this material. If it is good and you like it and want to distribute it to your association, you'll let me know your feedback and thoughts on it, if it needs a few tweaks. Hopefully, we can get what we need to so that we can update it into the manuals moving forward. Finally, on the philosophy side, and this ended up being our lead article, was the story, No Warm Ups for [00:05:00] Umpires.
Now, this was written by yours truly, so try not to bash too hard. But I think this article needs to be a highlight of your preseason training and the mindset you're taking into your first scrimmages and games of the season. The origin of the story is that I was actually working a JV baseball game in the early part of, I think it was the 2020 season, and I was working with the association's training director at the time.
And I was lucky to take over that responsibility shortly thereafter. Now, my partner, who is a great umpire with multiple decades of experience at the NFHS and Collegiate levels, he was buying the plate and I was on the bases. And in the third inning of an absolute snoozefest of a game, I noticed the catcher was wearing a skullcap and mask combo, which, of course, not legal at the NFHS level.
So, I didn't want to show off my partner, or really that I was just realizing this in the third inning, but it's certainly embarrassing to realize that something as obvious [00:06:00] as what the catcher is wearing was being missed by the crew. So at the end of the inning, I met with the coach and told him about the violation, to which he responded that he did know the rule and so did his catcher, but his catcher just likes to go out there to see if the umpires will catch it.
And at that point, I realized my partner and I had just been tested by a JV catcher and failed. My partner, a decade long collegiate and NFHS umpire, and myself, thinking pretty highly of myself coming from. A career in professional baseball, we just got tested by a 15 year old and failed. And so, from that moment on, I've tried to commit to forming habits of being ready to enforce these things from the earliest moment the violation occurs.
And that really comes down to knowing where to focus and honing in your ability to stay focused. So, for example, now every half inning, I know to visually [00:07:00] inspect the catcher when he comes out, Just to make sure he's legally equipped. And after that, checking the pitcher to make sure it's not a substitute taking the mound, and again, that he's legally equipped.
These are little details that may not seem that impactful, but if you're trying to be one of the best umpires at any level, you don't lose focus, and you don't miss the details. So, as part of my commitment to be the best I can be, I really focus now on catching these things and the other details throughout the game.
So, if you get a chance, check out the article, and of course, let me know in the comments what some of these focus rules are that you often see being missed, or that you specifically look for every time. So those were the three highlights of the baseball section in January, be sure to check them out. Now, of course, I did write two of them, but part of my mission is to bring in different viewpoints and expert umpires to participate in the magazine.
So, if there's a topic you'd like to discuss, let me know. [00:08:00] And you want to submit an article to the magazine, shoot me an email, pfaerber at referee. com so that we can get everything coordinated for you to submit that and if we end up rolling with one of your articles, then I'll also bring it on to the podcast to talk more about it and talk about how you're teaching it to your association.
And if you don't want to be a writer but have topics that you'd like to see covered, Feel free to message me either by email or on any social media. Now, on the YouTube channel, and as part of Umpire Classroom's weekly NFHS quizzes for January, we're looking at four videos being released. This includes the 2025 NFHS Rules Changes, the 2025 NFHS Points of Emphasis, a recap of the last five years of changes, And, most likely, an in depth breakdown of Plays of the Play.
So, like previous years, each week we'll start with a release of that week's quiz on Monday mornings, followed by the [00:09:00] quiz scores and video breakdown of the rules and questions coming out that Friday. And I will say, I think that I learn something new every time I put together one of these videos and there are a lot of times where I put the quiz out on a Monday and think, Wow, this week, I don't know if it will be that hard.
And, inevitably, every time, the average score comes in somewhere between 60 and 75%. I'll even give you an example of the 2025 Rules Changes quiz, which has already released, and in the first roughly 100 respondents, our average grade was about a 65%, and I think only one or two umpires got 100 percent as their score.
So there's obviously a huge need to get the content out there. And my followers tend to be the umpires most interested in improving their skills and knowledge. So that means a lot of umpires working games probably don't even have a shot at getting some of these right. So I say all that to come back to two points.[00:10:00]
First, share the content. Get it out there. When you work with an umpire that you think isn't all that good and doesn't put in on a lot of effort, point them to the channel. They may be someone that just struggles with wanting to get into the rulebook. But video content is a lot easier or it could be someone like me who doesn't sit down that much to read But certainly likes listening to podcasts and the second point is please share with me throughout the season When you have situations that require you to really think or look in the rulebook later to see if you got the call, right?
Odds are you aren't the only one confused on a rule So if you share those with me, I'd love to address them in our future content But again, I can only do that with your help, so feel free to message me or leave a comment and we'll see if we can get it added to the schedule. Now, finally, and this is the biggest news, as you all know, I'm looking to really increase the amount of podcast content out this year.
Yes, the weekly videos are more in [00:11:00] depth and certainly are my top tier content, but they take a lot of time to really edit and put together. So I want to do more podcast content so that I can be faster to put out new content as you all need it. And another advantage of the podcast as well is that it allows me to bring in guests who can provide more expert level and advanced material than I possibly could bring on my own.
And with my current focus being NFHS baseball, I want to bring in leaders who are highly involved at other levels. So on that note, I want to share that the first guest on the show will be George Gruscius, the National Coordinator of Umpires for the NCAA. And my goal with him and his team is to work with them to develop content across Referee and Umpire Classroom that will not only help NCAA Umpires, but will also benefit NFHS Umpires who are looking to move up to the NCAA level.
as well as all umpires who are simply looking to improve their [00:12:00] game. George obviously has a ton of qualifications and he holds the responsibility of picking the NCAA World Series umpires every year so he can get insight to how he makes those decisions and what factors he's looking for when moving umpires up.
Then hopefully throughout the season, his team of NCAA coordinators will be able to come back on here and provide insight to what they are seeing as trends, what they think is being done well. And what could be improved. There's obviously a ton they could speak about, so we'll see how it naturally unfolds.
And the goal is to have the first episode coming out on January 7th. And the first episode will probably serve more as just an introduction. But from all of you, please let me know if you have any questions you'd like me to ask him. You know, I can't guarantee they'll all show up in the first episode, but it will certainly help us to plan out content throughout the season and the year.
So if there are any questions you want me to ask him, leave them in the chat or email them over my way. And [00:13:00] finally, on that note, I am looking to bring in more experts and thought leaders into our network of content producers. So if you think that's you, or if you have some suggestions on people you'd like me to work with, again, send me an email or leave a comment and we'll see what we can do.
In the meantime, you can definitely be on the lookout for our first video of the season on Friday, dropping on YouTube, where we'll break down the 2025 NFHS rules changes and the quiz that so many seem to be failing. And then of course, our first podcast featuring the leaders of NCAA umpiring coming out next week.
So, thank you for being here, you know, I love umpiring, thank you all for interacting by taking the quizzes and hitting me up on social media. Love the conversations, I hope you're off to a great 2025, and let's make this your best season [00:14:00] yet.
