Becoming an Umpire

Updated Friday February 10, 2017 by Kanata Little League.

Becoming an Umpire

Updated: February 1, 2017

Its now time to begin planning for the 2017 Little League Baseball season. All umpires or umpire candidates should begin to think about the level of commitment that they can give for the upcoming season. Whether it be one game a week or every night of the week, we need skilled umpires to ensure that games go smoothly. Its a nice way to earn a few dollars as well.

To Umpire in KLLBA you must first REGISTER as an Umpire. Returning Umpires must re-register each season.

We are always in need of additional umpires, particularly of ages 16 and over and Adults. If you know of candidate umpires, please have them contact the league at: [email protected] or point them to this site.

The 2017 Spring season will operate substantially the same as it did in 2016. We will be running a Little League house league Spring program in May and June with several hundred players requiring umpires at Minor, Major, Junior and Senior divisions – we anticipate from 30-40 teams, and 6-10 games per night at all levels  generally on Monday through Thursday nights from 6pm to 8pm ish. Our 10-12 OBA teams will operate from Mid May through to the end of August, generally with potential games on any weeknight or weekend day or night. Little League Summer teams will also operate during July and August, largely on weeknights. There is no Big League program in 2017 as Little League International abandoned the program, instead we will offer an OBA Midget program.

 

Umpire Registration:

This year we will continue to use the KLLBA.ca/Leaguetoolbox system for keeping track of ALL umpires. we and we will use the KLLBA leaguetoolbox site to register ALL umpires of all ages. Please go to: www.kllba.leaguetoolbox.com now and click on “Umpire Registration” to setup your own userid (please use your email address as your userid). Although the system will ask you for your availability when you register, there is no need to enter it yet (unless you know it) - you will need to update it regularly online once the season begins. All of this will be covered in Training.  

• For all Home Games hosted by KLLBA/KBA, we will be using the leaguetoolbox site, which is an integrated website system hosted by Leaguetoolbox, to manage the entire league schedule, roster management, field assignment, umpire assignment and most importantly the COMMUNICATIONs process.

Qualification/Training:

Umpires must be 11 years of age, and have a general knowledge of Baseball. Rule book, Umpire Shirt and Cap will be provided free of charge provided that umpires agree to do at least 5 games over the course of the season. Mask, shin guards and blocker are provided at the diamond. Umpires must obtain their own “counters”, grey pants and black shoes.

Umpires are assigned to games in pairs and will be expected to work together. Senior umpires will qualify umpires by observation to work the plate and bases. Where possible, umpires will be assigned to games of lower age groups than their current age...ie Major age umpires will umpire Minor age games. Games in Minor to Junior age groups are generally 6pm to 8:15pm, umpires are expected to arrive 15 minutes prior to start of game.

To umpire OBA games, you must obtain OBA Certification, for further information see the ‘Training Courses’ section.

Training Requirements:

1. All first and second year umpires must attend an Introductory Umpire Training Clinic, which will last 1 day. See Umpire Training section for the schedule. You will need to register for this event using the KLLBA/KBA website under 'Training and Clinics'
2. All first and second year umpires must also attend the “on-field” clinic, where topics such as proper umpire positioning will be reviewed. See Umpire Training section for the schedule.
3. A Little League “Intermediate Umpire” clinic may be offered, but is not yet scheduled, and would be ½ day, on a weekend. This clinic is intended to cover game control, leadoffs/pickoffs and balks.
4. A Little League “Advanced” Clinic may be held for umpires that have not previously attended this, have umpired at least 3 years, and are at least 16 years old. This 2 day clinic may be offered one time this year. This clinic is intended to qualify umpires to work Little League District tournaments.
5. OBA Level 1 and OBA Level 2 Clinics will be offered in Kanata during late April/early May. These clinics are standardized across the province, so if you cannot attend you may choose another offering as listed on the Baseball Ontario website Umpires section. For Kanata, you must be in your 2^nd year of Umpiring or at least 14 years old to attend the OBA training. 

I will continue to update you regularly as we proceed to the 2017 season. The primary communication tool will be the LeagueToolbox website and emails generated from that site, so please ensure that you are REGISTER  there for the 2017 season, and please keep your contact information up to date on that website. If there are any issues with that site, please feel free to contact me.