About Steve Boga

Author’s Note

In 1972 I moved to Santa Rosa, California, to attend Sonoma State University and earn a teaching credential. Little did I know that I would soon be teaching umpiring skills.

Needing part-time work, I responded to a want-ad placed by the local officials association. Two years later, I was umpiring anything I could get, including high-school and summer-league baseball, and fastpitch and slowpitch softball.

In my third season, my mentor, Willie Rossi, said to me one day, “You should go to the umpire school. You could make it.”

Until 1975, anyone aspiring to umpire in the Major Leagues had to attend a month-long umpire school in Florida. That year, a school opened in Reseda, California, north of Los Angeles. I took it as a sign and enrolled. Did well; got a job in the minors.

After two seasons in the California League and one in the Texas League, I was advancing as quickly as any umpire in professional baseball. But I knew I couldn’t go on. Although I loved the three hours on the field—still the best I’ve ever been at anything—I grew to hate the 21 hours off the field. That season in the Texas League was a six-month grind away from loved ones, an endless array of hotels, restaurants, and dressing rooms, interspersed every three or four days with a grueling road trip to Little Rock or Tulsa or San Antonio.

I quit professional baseball, but I was at the peak of my skills and had no intention of quitting the game. For the next dozen years I umpired major college baseball, including the Pac 10, and world-class fastpitch softball.

Meanwhile, I taught others to umpire, running countless indoor and outdoor training sessions. Over the years I created and refined a list that I call:

“The skills and qualities needed to become the best umpire who ever lived”

What you will find here is the product of that analysis—and of years of experience witnessing, and making, most of the mistakes described here.

Enjoy. And remember, as the book title says: Umpiring is the best seat in baseball, but you have to stand.