1:24

My next guest is Tripp Gibson . Tripp has been a Major

1:26

League Baseball umpire for over 10 years , since his

1:28

big league call-up in 2013 . Over

1:30

the past 11 seasons , he's been part of the umpire

1:32

crew for over 1150 regular

1:34

season games , 28 post-season games

1:36

and was part of the crew for the 2023

1:39

All-Star Game in T-Mobile Park . Note

1:41

for his outstanding accuracy behind the plate . Tripp's

1:43

been involved in some historic games , including Game

1:45

4 of the 2022 World Series

1:47

, in which the Houston Astros pitched a combined

1:50

no-hitter only the second no-hitter in World

1:52

Series history after Don Larson's perfect game in

1:54

1956 . Tripp Gibson

1:56

, welcome to Carney Saves the World , scott , thanks

1:58

for having me , man , I appreciate it . Thank you for being here , sitting

2:01

down and thinking about you coming on . I'm wondering you

2:03

know , and I'm sure other people out there are how

2:05

does one become an umpire Like ? Where does that

2:07

start and what was your journey like ?

2:09

That's funny . You say that . You know , I

2:11

get to ask that question a lot because people are

2:13

like so did you just like , wake up one

2:15

day and go , I want to be a Major League Baseball

2:17

umpire ? Well , that is not

2:20

how that happened . I did not wake up a

2:22

Major League umpire . And

2:24

the other funny thing , when you were reading my bio

2:26

, was , like , do I really have almost

2:28

11 years experience in the Major Leagues

2:30

? Like that's , it's kind of flown by . I want to start

2:32

by saying this before I go into like you know how you

2:34

become an umpire , but you read all

2:36

those things and I'm just like well , I'm also

2:38

a husband and I'm a father . So

2:41

it's like , and I think that when people look at people

2:43

on television , first and foremost , they get lost

2:45

in the fact that , like , oh well , trip probably doesn't even

2:47

have a mother , right , he's just some name

2:49

of the umpire that everybody wants to hate , right , I actually

2:51

got a sense of humor sometimes too . Yeah , right , you

2:53

know , my journey really began , you

2:55

know , at an early age . I started playing

2:57

baseball when I was six , and for

2:59

me it was just something to do in the summer , right , as

3:01

a young kid , and I got pretty decent at

3:03

it . You know you're making like seven eight-year-old all-star

3:06

teams . And then I started playing

3:08

you know a little more , what they call travel ball

3:10

, now select ball . It

3:12

was a travel team and I got into 12

3:15

, 13 , 14 and grew up in western Kentucky

3:17

in a little town called Mayfield which , if

3:19

anybody remembers , a major tornado hit

3:21

my hometown two years ago , this past

3:24

December . But I grew up in a really

3:26

small town , kind of in a river region where the

3:28

Mississippi River and the Ohio River meet

3:30

is where I'm from and that little hotbed

3:32

of western Kentucky and southern Illinois

3:35

and , you know , south of eastern

3:37

Missouri , southern Indiana , like

3:39

western Tennessee , even

3:41

that little corner of Arkansas . It's a hotbed

3:43

for sports because the climate , you

3:45

know it gets cold in the winter but it gets hot in

3:47

the summer and so the climate is really advantageous

3:50

for baseball . I mean there's tons of baseball being played

3:52

in that area , you know , and I

3:54

got to where I was like 12 and 13 , 14 and

3:57

I got pretty good , like I was really good for

3:59

a travel ball team out of western Kentucky

4:01

and you know we were going in the summers to

4:03

, you know , denver , colorado , omaha

4:06

, nebraska , you know , down in Florida

4:08

we were traveling a lot playing . You know high

4:10

level baseball and , like a lot of us baseball

4:12

fans out there , I wanted to be a major league baseball

4:14

player . I wanted to be a guy that

4:17

was going to either wear at the time because

4:19

where I grew up right , the Cubs were really

4:21

popular because they were on WGN . You know

4:23

, you had Bozo , the clown that

4:25

was on the , the Shawnee before the 120

4:27

Cubs game . You had the White

4:29

Sox that weren't far . The Cardinals were the closest

4:32

team . You got KMOX Radio

4:34

, Jack Buck on the call and you

4:36

got TBS , which broadcasted the Atlanta

4:38

Braves all over the planet .

4:40

Well , yeah , they were the first ones .

4:41

Yeah , and when you grew up in that little area like baseball's

4:43

huge right . So I wanted to be a major league ball

4:45

player and as I started playing more and more

4:47

travel ball , more select ball and kind of getting

4:50

better and advancing , got

4:52

into high school and I really had my mindset

4:54

on getting better in high school

4:56

and I was like you know what to make this , I've got to get

4:58

into college baseball . I got to be a college player

5:00

I was like , okay , I'm going to have a , hopefully get

5:02

a scholarship somewhere , big . You know . Growing

5:04

up in Kentucky , at least for

5:06

me , wildcat basketball like

5:08

kind of runs the state , right , oh yeah

5:10

, you've got horse racing , you've got Kentucky

5:13

basketball and there's that little bitty section around

5:15

this town called Louisville that's Cardinal fans

5:17

but the whole rest of state's basketball fans

5:19

. So I wanted to go to the University

5:21

of Kentucky or University of Tennessee

5:23

and so people were like the Vols , why would you go to the Vols

5:26

? And for me it was all about proximity to home

5:28

. It was a heck of a lot further to Knoxville

5:30

than it was to Lexington and

5:32

I wanted to get away . So , figure came

5:34

, I had a couple like little offers

5:36

junior college , little Christian school

5:39

, nai , and I

5:41

don't know if it was just intuition

5:43

something hit . And I was like you know what my

5:45

dad was pretty upset when I finally told him , after

5:47

all these years of work trying to be a major league ball

5:49

player and being the best baseball player , I could little

5:52

switch , hitter , leadoff hitter , center

5:54

fielder , fastest lightning hit

5:57

. Okay , could run like the wind . But yeah

5:59

, like you know what Dad , I think I'm done and

6:01

he's like well , why I go ? Because if I go to this little

6:03

school and this is just me it's not for everybody

6:06

, right , but it is for some people , but for me . I was like

6:08

some of these credits won't even transfer when I go to

6:10

a bigger school . I don't want to waste two years of my life

6:12

. And my dad was like what , you've had this dream

6:14

since you were probably six , seven , eight years old and

6:16

you wasted 18 years already . Oh

6:19

right , I mean you're thinking about it . You're like well

6:21

, in the summers I played for a coach . It

6:24

was actually Murray State University's head baseball

6:26

coach . He was my summer coach for quite a few years

6:28

there and he'd kind of told my dad hey

6:31

, like if he comes to trial probably can get him

6:33

a locker it's a walk on , no guarantees

6:35

he'll play right . And so I just , I was like I'm done

6:37

. I hung my cleats up and kind

6:39

of giving you the rest of the story . My father

6:42

was also my baseball

6:44

coach , high school coach . He was my employer

6:46

. I worked for him . He had his own business . I

6:48

was his little gopher . We

6:51

were doing home theater installs . I'm running wires

6:53

through Attics under homes and you

6:55

know I don't have a fear of spiders anymore because

6:57

of that . Right , I became

6:59

his repossess man . I'd have to go

7:01

like repossess , like TVs and

7:03

appliances , refrigerators for people that

7:05

hadn't been paying . That's no life for

7:08

a 16 , 17 , 18 year old kid . Yeah

7:10

. So it's like dad had a deal . I'm going off to college

7:12

and they had convinced me . My grandfather

7:14

, who really has a lot to do with this actual

7:16

story , my grandfather came to me and he's like hey

7:19

, everyone your cousins except for one is

7:21

graduated from Murray State University in

7:23

Murray , kentucky . It's like 30 minutes away , right

7:25

, I didn't want to go to school 30 minutes away

7:27

, I want to go to school seven hours away . So

7:29

I was done working for my dad . I was done living

7:31

with my dad . I was done playing baseball for

7:33

my dad . My dad's like well , somehow

7:36

you're going to have to pay for your car

7:38

insurance , your gas , books

7:40

, food , dorm . He's

7:42

like what are you going to do ? I'm like I don't

7:44

know . And he goes well , I heard that the local youth

7:47

league , the recreational park , got named

7:49

Pat Powers , who I will the beginning of my umpire

7:51

and career to . He's since passed

7:53

. I went down to a local park

7:55

and he's like hey , I've got a game for you . You want to

7:58

work behind home plate in your first game ? I'm like not

8:00

really . And he's like

8:02

well , I paid 25 bucks . So

8:04

I went and worked the game . I had my hat on backwards

8:06

, which , if anybody's ever watched a major league game

8:08

and paid any attention to the umpires and I hope that

8:11

you don't pay much attention , you

8:13

don't wear your hat backwards I looked like a

8:15

fool , probably . I felt like

8:17

a fool and of course , I did the best

8:19

I could , but in the fourth inning I ejected

8:21

the head coach my very first ever

8:24

game first game and

8:26

I knew the coach too . But after the game walked

8:29

over to Pat , over at the concession

8:31

stand , you know , before you get your hot dog and I soda

8:33

and handed me my check and he

8:35

said thanks for giving it a shot . And when I went

8:38

to grab the check out of his hand he wouldn't let

8:40

go and I was like , actually

8:42

, pat , I loved it every

8:44

second of this . Can I , can I have more

8:46

? He's like really , you want to keep doing this ? So

8:49

, yeah , I kept going . I showed up the next day and kept

8:51

showing up the next weekends and I

8:53

Got into it , you know , doing like these little tournaments , like

8:56

the ball . I was playing it , you know 10 , 11 , 12

8:58

, 13 and I found myself I

9:00

wanted to be the home plate umpire for championship

9:02

games or tournaments . I wanted to be getting

9:04

to high school baseball , got into high school ball within a

9:06

couple years , and even while

9:08

I was at Murray State University yes

9:10

, it did take me five years to get out of there I mean

9:12

, too , I was actually umpiring Division 1 baseball

9:15

games while I was in college and what

9:17

I found and this is gonna be mind-blowing what

9:19

I found is I actually loved umpiring more than

9:21

I ever did , playing Really Kind of weird

9:23

even say it now . Yeah , and what I did is I had this drive

9:26

like I wanted to be . I wanted to be the best dressed

9:28

, I want to be in the best shape , I wanted to be the

9:30

most known as far as like respectable

9:32

trip has a good strike zone , trip doesn't miss a lot

9:34

of calls , he shows up on time or early

9:37

, you know , and he always looks professional

9:39

and that was kind of like my theme . You

9:41

know , this journey keeps going right at

9:43

this point I'm just 23 years old , about the turn

9:45

24 , and through my fraternity

9:47

and I gotta give mention , I was

9:49

a pike , pike , kappa , alpha . It was actually

9:52

a great experience for me because what it did

9:54

was it taught me to be the best I could individually

9:56

but for a team almost like playing ball

9:58

for a team like you want to be the best fraternity on this . And and

10:01

one of my fraternity brothers older

10:03

guy that was working for the University at the time he's like

10:05

, hey , I know a major league umpire

10:08

. I'm like really who ? He's like Larry

10:10

van over . He lives in Owensboro , kentucky . I'm like Owensboro

10:12

is only an hour and a half away . I go to a

10:14

rotary club event lunch meeting , met

10:17

Larry . Within a week I got a . Through

10:20

the regular USPS I

10:22

get a registration form for Harry

10:24

Wendell's , that school for professional

10:26

umpires , really based out of Daytona before

10:29

, and it was a note Signed

10:31

by Harry Wendell's that , who was a longtime National

10:34

League veteran . Yeah , and I

10:36

said hey , but let me see , at our umpire school I

10:38

registered , graduated college , murray

10:40

State , december of 2005

10:42

, went to Daytona Beach , enrolled

10:45

and started on January 2nd 2006

10:48

to start my journey in professional umpiring

10:50

at Harry Wendell's at school . Wow , that's

10:52

great . Yeah , that's amazing . It's like

10:54

yesterday . But then again , when you've restart reading

10:56

the biome , like man , I've been a part of a

10:58

lot of cool things .

10:59

You really have now . You go

11:02

through school , you graduate one by our school . How

11:04

long is that process ?

11:05

on first school five weeks Okay , it's six

11:07

days away off on Sundays . When I

11:09

say this , I want to preface this statement

11:11

by saying I don't mean military style

11:13

, but it's got a military format

11:15

, whereas and Harry was a

11:18

US Marine , retired US Marine

11:20

and before he went into Umpiring

11:22

in the National League , and so the way

11:24

it was set up is it ? You have classroom in the morning

11:26

and then you have field work . There's calisthenics , there's

11:29

formation and lines where everything's regimented

11:31

and everybody's working together , which I really

11:33

like . That approach like where you're you're trying to be the best

11:35

individual you can't , to be the best class

11:37

that you can be . Yeah , five weeks long , and

11:40

wow , I was a very naive person

11:42

, I guess , because I thought at that

11:44

time there was a hundred and seventy five students that

11:46

were gonna take 20 , the top 25 To go on

11:49

to an advanced training . There's two

11:51

umpire schools at this time . There was the Jim

11:53

Evans Academy it was a

11:55

longtime American League umpire and then Harry

11:57

Wendell said school . They took the top 25

11:59

from each class to go on to an advanced placement

12:02

into the minor leagues , almost like another tryout . Okay

12:04

, so essentially , umpire school , five week long

12:07

trial and they're trying to see if you can

12:09

learn the stuff . They're teaching the rules

12:11

. You know , we went through the entire rulebook in five weeks , you know

12:13

, and it's my god kind of crazy to think about it

12:15

now . Yeah , and it's the

12:18

rulebook . It's been , I guess , changed

12:20

on the layout , the form of it , but it used to be

12:22

like one of those adventure novels where it would say

12:25

if you want to go to drive his car off the cliff

12:27

, turn to page 58 . If you

12:29

want him to turn around , turn page 22 . The

12:31

rulebook used to be like that . You go through that

12:33

, you learn how to work a two umpire

12:36

system which , when I graduated

12:38

with , from a hundred seventy five students

12:40

in my class , I finished somehow two

12:43

in my class , number two , wow , and Got

12:45

hired in them to a minor league baseball . Thank

12:47

you , summer , wow . So then you did the minor league route

12:49

. Yeah , nine years in the minor leagues

12:52

, I man . I started out in the New York Penn

12:54

League . I've never been to New York and never been to Boston

12:56

, and I remember I was

12:58

the driver . So like that means I had my

13:00

car right , my little . I was a

13:02

Chevy cobalt . So

13:07

the Chevy cobalt , my league meeting was an

13:09

Aberdeen , maryland . I was at a Baltimore , the

13:11

iron birds , cal Ripken juniors

13:13

, his corporation , or they own

13:15

the team . They probably still do . And my first

13:17

assignment was low Massachusetts

13:20

, home of the spinners low spinners .

13:22

There we go . Yeah , yep , go up north

13:24

. It's not for Patek Rhode Island . Did you ever make

13:26

the rounds to the McCoy State in the Tuckett Red Sox

13:28

?

13:29

I missed what was called used to be called the

13:31

international league . Yeah , triple A for me

13:33

was the Pacific Coast League . Okay , which has always

13:35

been laughable for me , it was named the Pacific

13:37

Coast League because it used to be all the West Coast , but

13:39

when I was there Nashville , memphis

13:42

, new Orleans , omaha they were on

13:44

the Pacific Coast League . I'm like this is anything

13:46

but the Pacific Coast . This is like three time

13:49

zones . Are you kidding me ?

13:50

Yeah , it was so weird . I grew up in Tuckett , I

13:52

worked for the concession stands and kind

13:55

of behind the scenes stuff . But you know we saw

13:57

a lot of , you know umpires come through , a lot of players

13:59

come through and it was interesting because

14:01

the international league was segmented towards

14:03

the Northeast for a while . And then Late

14:06

90s , early 2000s , they started jumbling everything

14:08

up and you get a West Coast team and you're what

14:10

the hell's going on here ?

14:11

Yeah , and actually the interesting part about the international league

14:13

is that there used to be a team in Ottawa . Yeah right

14:16

, part of the international league . Another reason , and I think

14:18

even Puerto Rico , way back in the day . But yeah

14:20

, the minor leagues , you know it's changed a lot even since

14:22

I was there . But you know , when Harry was there they

14:24

had like a , b , d

14:26

. You know a , b , c , d levels , like they

14:28

had all these little towns . Like you know , north

14:30

Carolina's got some teams . You know I went to Greensboro

14:33

back in the day trying to think of other teams

14:35

in North Carolina . I went to , oh , raleigh , there

14:37

was it . We were in Zebulun . That was double a when I

14:39

was , when I was in the Southern League . But yeah

14:41

, nine years , nine years in the minor leagues

14:44

, driving either my car , driving

14:46

a minivan with two other guys , I believe

14:48

me as a single man , driving a minivan

14:51

, nothing , nothing says loser . Oh

14:53

, I'm gonna be man .

14:54

Nothing keeps you single , huh .

14:56

Yeah , exactly matter of fact , when I met

14:59

my wife , we were I was in double

15:01

a , and so I can vividly remember her

15:03

flying to Huntsville , alabama , with

15:06

a broken ankle and Her riding

15:08

the minivan going to the ballpark with us . Oh , that's

15:10

love .

15:12

So you know , working for the second red sox I

15:14

saw you know a lot of you know with the clubhouse attendance

15:16

did and you're doing laundry and I've always

15:19

wondered this who did your laundry ? Did

15:21

you guys just do your own laundry , just wash your own clothes

15:23

and no , that's a great question because a lot of

15:25

people don't think about it .

15:27

No , we had club . We have clubhouse attendance as well

15:29

, and , all right , it would be either the

15:31

home or visiting clubhouse attendant

15:33

for the team . Most of time it'd be the visiting

15:35

guy . They would be assigned

15:38

to our locker room and so you know

15:40

they would take care of us . They provide , you know we'd have a couple

15:42

waters and they get . You know , in the locker room We'd have a

15:44

locker room , just you know , to shower after the

15:46

game . Get ready , pregame we used to

15:48

rub all the baseballs and I can remember rubbing dozens

15:50

and hundreds of dozens of baseballs Long

15:54

ago . You know we don't even touch them anymore . Yeah

15:56

, the clubhouse attendance would take care of us and you

15:58

know we'd tip them for their work . Well , they provide

16:00

food after the game and you know , even

16:03

in the lower minor leagues you'd walk in there . There might be

16:05

two bears sitting there . You know , one for you and your crewmate

16:07

and you know you are to that . So , yeah

16:09

, and then now the major leagues , like we , get

16:11

some of the best treatment you can imagine . And

16:13

when you think about how many games Baseball

16:15

players play you know , 162

16:18

in the majors you know it would be like 140

16:20

to 144 in the minor leagues , depending on the

16:22

league and the umpires . You know , in the minor

16:24

leagues you're working all those games Like you don't have any time

16:26

off in the minors . And so when you're

16:29

working all those games , like when you get after the game

16:31

and you get under a shower , you leave , you

16:33

come back . It's so nice to have you clean

16:35

clothes and In the major

16:37

leagues my trunk ships ahead . So

16:40

after the game I pack it up and it's gone to the

16:42

next city . When I go from New York to Minneapolis

16:44

, when I get to Minneapolis my locker

16:47

is ready to go , everything's set up , ready to go . So

16:49

it's so nice having that . It's a luxury . Honestly

16:51

, it's a major luxury .

16:52

Oh nice , you earned it . You know you've been through

16:54

so much just to get to there . I

16:56

heard on another podcast your story about your

16:58

call-up . As you're telling , I was driving

17:00

and I'm listening to it . I started kind of as

17:03

such a huge , huge baseball fit . I

17:05

started welling up . It

17:07

was such an awesome story . Would you

17:09

mind telling telling us about the day you got called

17:11

up to the major leagues ?

17:12

Yeah , I remember it had been about

17:14

a year and a half lead up to this to

17:17

better explain . So I say

17:19

on task and target here with my story when

17:21

you get the triple a , it's kind of like put up or

17:23

shut up time All the things you've learned in single

17:25

a which you know . There used to be four levels

17:28

of single a and then you spent two or three

17:30

years in double a and you hit all those levels . Right

17:32

, players get promoted , they bounce from single a . All of a sudden

17:34

they're in triple a , they're in the big leagues two years later , right

17:36

? Well , that doesn't happen for an umpire . So when you get

17:38

hired you're expecting 10 years . You get the triple

17:40

a and you're like okay , my goal now is to

17:42

make major league spring training . I

17:44

want to be a call up to work or an invite

17:46

. Like you see , these players They'll sound like minor

17:49

league contract invite to major league spring

17:51

training . So that's kind of what you want as an umpire . You want to get

17:53

that invite . And I got the triple a and

17:55

I had a great crew chief , great crew . I

17:58

was , you know , about to propose to Dana

18:00

, my wife and you know

18:02

I'm like thinking , okay , I want to get to major league spring training

18:04

. But to get major league spring , you have to go to

18:06

the Arizona fall league first , which

18:09

is kind of where they send the hot prospect players

18:11

to you . Go there , you're under

18:13

like a major microscope . It's almost like umpire

18:15

school again , but it's a super , super

18:18

competitive , which is good , because competition

18:20

makes you better right A lot of the time . Half

18:23

to almost all the guys that go to the Arizona fall

18:25

league , because there's usually only like 12 to 15 umpires

18:27

that go , all you know , out of triple a those

18:30

guys are not on what they call

18:32

the call-up list , meaning I can get called

18:35

up to work for a sick , injured

18:37

, vacationing umpire

18:39

, who you know . Maybe they're going to their daughters

18:41

high school graduation , whatever , so that I'm not

18:43

on the call-up list yet . That's why I got to go

18:46

to the fall league , did well in the fall league , go

18:48

to major league spring training and so on 2012 , I

18:50

go into Major League Spring training my first ever , scared

18:53

to death not really scared to death , but nervous , right

18:55

, I don't want to screw up . This is my big shot on the big

18:57

stage , even though this is not even the Major League yet

18:59

, and after spring I get awarded

19:01

a number , and so I'm number 73

19:03

, and that was the number they gave me in 2012 . And

19:06

so I went all year as a call-up

19:08

on the list , right , and I didn't work . Dana

19:11

and I had our first son that July

19:13

and kept thinking maybe the

19:15

last week of the season I'll get called up to work to Seattle

19:18

. We got married in September

19:20

and it didn't happen , right , and that's

19:22

pretty bummed , you know , and we're a religious

19:24

family , we have a lot of faith and kind

19:27

of just prayed a lot about it and was like you know

19:29

what ? I need to stop worrying about all this

19:31

and just let things happen , because I'm a big

19:33

believer of like , if you just put your nose in the

19:35

groundstone and go do your job , like good things

19:37

will happen , right . And so that's kind of what I

19:39

did . Went into the next year , 2013

19:42

, you know , go to Major League Spring training again , and

19:44

so this is a year later after getting my number

19:46

being on the call-up list and not being

19:48

used , and I saw some

19:50

other guys that were kind of with me in that group

19:53

, the Fall League , and they're working in the Major Leagues and

19:55

I'm not , you know , I'm not jealous , but

19:57

I'm more or so just kind of angry

19:59

at myself , like that I screw up , and

20:01

I guess it was . So . My first

20:03

game was July , the 8th of 2013

20:06

, in Phoenix , arizona , the

20:09

Dodgers of the Diamondbacks . But it was like two weeks

20:11

before that and I get a phone call

20:13

and it's my boss and

20:15

he's calling me and he's like our liaison

20:18

supervisor between he's a Major

20:20

League supervisor but he's between he handles all the AAA

20:22

umpires and another supervisor

20:24

who handles AAA umpires , and they're

20:26

kind of like going so trip , you

20:29

know , how do you think you've been doing lately ? And I'm like

20:31

I think I've been doing pretty good , you

20:33

know . And he's like , no , no , not really

20:35

seeing that , not really seeing that we've got some problems . And

20:37

so I'm on the phone thinking like , and

20:39

so they go , hey , we're gonna patch in this other boss

20:41

. And so they patch him into the call . So I'm sitting on the call , I'm like

20:44

I'm about to get reamed . I am literally

20:46

about to get reamed

20:48

. And they're like , yeah , so

20:50

you know , we were thinking might

20:52

need you come two weeks from now . I'm like

20:54

, okay , he's like , yeah , how would you like to

20:56

make your Major League debut in

20:58

Phoenix , arizona , the Dodgers are playing

21:01

the Diamondbacks and I'm so excited

21:03

At that time , if you go back and look at history

21:05

, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks literally had a bench

21:07

clearing brawl . Like a couple of days before they

21:09

made , they gave me this call and so I'm thinking to myself

21:11

I'm gonna have a brawl , I'm gonna have to handle this

21:14

in the Major League . I'm freaking out and

21:16

I'm like I'm so ecstatic . I

21:19

called the crew . I was like , hey , let's go to lunch . And

21:21

so we went to lunch and I'm the crew

21:23

chief and I bought lunch and I'm like , hey , I got some news

21:25

and we celebrate and everybody's so excited . And

21:28

a couple of weeks go by , I've

21:31

made all the phone calls to everybody . I'm trying to get everybody

21:33

there my dad , my stepmom , I'm trying to get

21:35

my mom there , my wife , kid

21:37

and , you know , all the grandparents

21:39

, let everybody know . And it's almost like one of

21:41

those things when you build something up too much , it's

21:43

almost like I don't want to let them down . So

21:45

like part of me didn't want to tell hardly anyone because

21:48

I didn't want to like screw up and feel like

21:51

, well , tripp got a cup of coffee in the Major

21:53

League , that was it right . I didn't want to be that guy . I

21:55

guess one of the funnier parts of this story is the

21:57

day before I left to fly to

21:59

Phoenix . I was in Nashville , tennessee , working

22:01

in the National Sounds , and I don't

22:03

recall who the visiting team was , but the sounds

22:06

were the Brewers organization . I'm

22:08

not going to name the pitchers name . He's still pitching

22:10

right now , to this day , but he's

22:12

pitching and I'm working first base . In AAA

22:15

it's three umpires , sometimes four

22:17

, but I'm at first base and there's a

22:19

ball hit down the right field line . That is

22:21

what we call a pole bender , so it kind of wraps

22:23

around the pole right . You've been to plenty games

22:25

the Fenway , you got Pesky pole there . Oh yeah

22:27

, such a pain in the rear , but

22:30

it's so cool because it's just an odd layout

22:33

. You know the field and the fans are right there on

22:35

top of reaching over the fence . Anyways

22:37

, this ball is hitting the air and I've got it above

22:40

the pole . The minor leagues , these foul poles , are not

22:42

like Major League foul poles . They're pretty short , so

22:44

anything hit high enough is going to be above the

22:46

pole . So I kind of got it wrapping around

22:48

the pole fair , it's all point the ball fair . And

22:51

before I knew it the pitcher is going crazy

22:53

Like I'm talking crazy

22:55

and I'm like stop , stop , stop . I

22:58

ended up ejecting him . Right . The

23:00

manager comes out . He is calming me down

23:02

. Calming him down , he's like hey , tripp , I think you

23:04

got it right . So he's like defending

23:06

me , right . But he's trying to get his pitcher

23:08

, who probably had been

23:10

shelled that game and he gives up a home run

23:12

. He's mad . So

23:14

the game ends , the night

23:16

ends . Of course , I have to type up this report . By the

23:18

way , when we have an ejection , it's literally like two hours

23:21

of report writing . Serious , yeah

23:23

, because you got to get all the language right and it goes to attorneys

23:27

and it goes to the Major League Baseball Players

23:29

Association and the office and all these people have to

23:31

read . It's a legal document , right ? Oh , wow

23:33

, that's nuts . And I get it because there's

23:35

any assessiveness . You know there could be

23:37

fines , there could be suspensions , whatnot

23:39

. I got to make sure that I'm handling

23:42

as professional as possible what you do . The

23:44

game ends , the night ends . I've got like a 430

23:46

AM wake up call flying from Nashville to Phoenix

23:49

and of course , I'm in suit and tie . I'm

23:51

flying first class for the very first time

23:53

ever because I'm going to the big leagues . And

23:55

guess who starts loading the plane

23:58

? The Nashville sounds . They

24:00

start loading the plane and I'm sitting there in

24:02

first class and they're all sitting in the back of the

24:04

plane , right , because they're flying to the

24:22

next city . And I see the pitcher and he stops and

24:24

looks at me and he goes hey , tripp , what are you doing

24:27

up here ? And I go I'm headed to the big

24:29

leagues . Baby , I

24:31

just thrown him out the night before . Now I'm headed to

24:33

the big leagues . It was a pretty funny moment , that's

24:36

awesome , yeah . And then man getting

24:38

the like you said , getting the call , and no

24:40

one that I'm going down into history books is working

24:42

in the major leagues . You know having my

24:44

wife , my son there , and I remember

24:47

. So I started at second base and

24:49

I worked with retired Major League umpire Tim McClellan

24:51

, oh yeah , retired Major League umpire Marty

24:54

Foster , and then current crew chief

24:56

Marvin Hudson . I'm

24:58

at second . I think in the second inning I

25:00

had a call at second where I called Hanley Ramirez

25:02

out . It was all of a sudden like the boom the butterflies

25:04

were gone . I was like I'm a Major League umpire . I

25:07

mean , I went under contract , but I'm like here I

25:09

am , it's awesome . Worked first base the

25:11

next night and there was a

25:13

incident where the Marvin had the

25:15

plate and he had to issue warnings , meaning he

25:17

had to warn both teams . The dugouts , the

25:19

players , like I think a batter got hit

25:21

might have been on purpose , and so I'm thinking to myself

25:23

I'm going to have the plate tomorrow , there's going to be a brawl

25:26

, I'm going to have to handle the brawl , I'm going to eject the

25:28

pitcher . I don't know what's going to happen . Right On

25:31

July 10th of 2013

25:34

, I worked home plate for the very first game ever and

25:36

if , as if , I would forget

25:39

it it went 14 innings . Oh my God

25:41

, five hours and like 15 minutes

25:43

. Are you kidding me ? First game , are you serious ? Yes

25:45

, 14 innings .

25:48

Like I just want to go to bed and beat . Wow

25:51

, that's crazy . There's also spring

25:53

training . I mean it gets spring training good . Full

25:55

season it's post season . I

25:58

mean that's just a long time

26:00

. How do you manage being on the road that long ? It's

26:02

got to be crazy .

26:03

That's an interesting question . So I got hired

26:05

full time in 2015 and in

26:07

the year of 2014, . And

26:10

I'm going to go into that answer , but you just asked

26:12

me in a second . In 2014

26:14

, I taught at Harry Wendell's that's Empire School for 10 years

26:16

as well . So in 2014 , I taught the

26:18

whole month of January . The first week of February in

26:20

Daytona I was gone for my family and

26:23

then I went to Major League Spring training starting the end of February

26:25

. So I was home for like two and a half three weeks and went to Major

26:27

League Spring , went right into the season . I

26:29

worked basically the entire

26:32

Major League season . I

26:34

was up as a call up right . So I was still tripling

26:36

umpire working in the major leagues and I bounced

26:38

around from Del Scott , retired American

26:40

League umpire , became full time major league

26:42

umpire when they joined staffs in 2000 . Worked

26:44

with him half the season and then with the guy named Tom

26:47

Halyan , who was also retired , and

26:49

a couple other crews in there as well . But I worked

26:51

149 games that year . So I got

26:53

taught at umpire school Major League Spring training

26:55

, the full season . In August they called

26:58

me and said hey , you haven't been to Winter Ball

27:00

yet , we're going to send you to the Dominican Republic . Oh

27:02

my God . On top of that , to answer your question

27:05

, 2014 , I was gone from my

27:07

own Personal bed 322

27:10

nights . Oh my Lord , that's crazy

27:12

. Um , and then I got hired in January

27:14

of 2015 . So I was in the Dominican when they hired

27:16

me . And , to answer your question , think

27:19

about , like number one , what my wife had

27:21

to put up with when I was in the minor leagues of

27:23

being gone , especially that year in 2014 . We

27:26

had a young son and I was just gone . I

27:28

mean , they got a few times . I mean they only think

27:30

, come travel with me for a couple of weeks , they come out for a series

27:32

or two , that's it Right . I mean , if we've

27:35

got St Louis and Kansas City and we could drive together

27:37

or or what you know , and now the kids

27:39

are getting older and being gone . People

27:42

always say , like you know , what's the hardest part of the job ? My

27:44

answer is always the same the hardest part of the job

27:47

is also the part I like the most

27:49

, which is the travel . I love

27:51

traveling , going to different cities , different

27:53

restaurants , meeting new people , having my family

27:56

come out , but the travel is what keeps me gone

27:58

and it is extremely difficult

28:00

. You know my boys are getting older

28:02

, they're playing sports , you know they're in school and

28:04

then being able to come out doesn't happen

28:07

as often as when they're little , yeah

28:09

, Right . And you know , Dana

28:11

, to be an umpire's wife . Not only do you have

28:13

to understand that well , number one , I'm

28:15

not curing cancer , Right ? So even though people hate

28:17

me and they don't even know who I am , they

28:20

have to understand like not really the real world . I

28:22

mean Twitter , X , whatever . It's

28:24

not really the real world . I mean it's

28:26

not like having a conversation face to face with somebody , and

28:29

so anybody , anything that people say about me , it's

28:31

just low and awesome steam , yeah . And

28:33

you know , once you get past that and

28:36

then you understand that your husband is gone

28:38

and she has to make all the decisions

28:40

, like basically , she's basically she has to live like

28:42

a single parent until I get home on an off

28:44

day or vacation week or whatever . So I

28:46

can't honestly imagine the things that she goes through

28:49

until she tells me but it's like man

28:52

, it's almost impossible . Like it really is

28:54

, Like you gotta have a very , very tough spouse

28:56

, yeah , and you know so .

28:58

I worked with Danna at Boston Beer , and

29:00

she was traveling for a while too , so

29:02

I mean , that's got to be , you know , just so hard on her

29:04

, but she's , she's an angel , you know , being

29:07

able to do that and to let you

29:09

live your dream too , you know , to let you do what

29:11

you love to do .

29:12

Well , that's funny too is that I knew what I

29:14

signed up for to be a major league umpire . So when people

29:16

get upset with me , like that's just part of it , right , I'm

29:19

doing the best I can , like I'm gonna try to get every call

29:21

right . I know that I'm not going to be get every call

29:23

right , it's not possible but

29:25

she knew that this was my dream and it's amazing that

29:27

you know she signed up for it right . Sometimes

29:30

I'm like I can't believe you actually signed up for this crazy

29:33

wild ride .

29:34

Did you not know any other men ?

29:38

I'm thankful , yeah right , our

29:40

two sides of crazy kind of go together so .

29:42

So does she ? You know , if she's in a game and

29:45

you're there and the other crowd turns on you

29:47

, does she get ? Does she feel it ? Does she get all fired up

29:49

and want to scream back ?

29:50

You know , I think that she's probably heard me boo so

29:53

much it doesn't even faze her . I

29:56

will say this in 2017

29:59

, I worked the world baseball classic oh wow In

30:01

Miami and I had to play at the plate

30:03

. It was Dominican Republic versus Columbia

30:05

and it's the bottom of the ninth . Columbia

30:08

is the home team and there's one out with

30:10

a runner at third . So Columbia's

30:12

got a runner at third and the game's tied . So

30:15

this run wins the game . I

30:17

can't remember the hitter , but he hits a fly ball lazy

30:19

fly ball to left field for out number

30:21

two for the catch , right . Well , the runner third tags

30:24

up . This is the winning run of the game and

30:26

this is the world . So we have two countries

30:28

that are trying to beat one another . The

30:30

ballpark in Miami , the Marlins stadium

30:32

, is packed . I mean I'm talking

30:34

, oh yeah , huge fan base and Dana's there and

30:37

she showed me videos after the game but like , literally

30:39

, there was like little parties going on in the stands

30:41

as if it was like the greatest day of the people , this

30:44

people's lives , that were there , all

30:46

the runner out to send in an extra innings and

30:48

Columbia they're all leaving the dugout

30:50

about to celebrate and high five their

30:52

runner because they're gonna win the game right , except for I Called

30:55

him out , so there's no , there's no winning

30:57

of the game . It's we're going extra innings and

30:59

all those guys like rushed me

31:02

and ended up having to eject like six people

31:04

. Oh no , and if you freaked out

31:06

and security actually had to get her , they

31:08

brought her down the locker room . She was just worried for me

31:11

because she's like I'm never seen anything like that before , like

31:13

that , that type of a yeah , all like on you

31:15

. I mean like you hear it from the stands , but I

31:17

mean she does , I . We don't hear . We don't

31:19

hear the booze . I mean we feel the energy

31:22

, but you're so focused on

31:24

what's happening in front of you that big crowds , you

31:26

don't hear the comments at all . Small crowds

31:28

where you hear some things . But yeah , I

31:30

remember . I mean this is kind of an old one , but I remember

31:32

the minor leagues when the cell phones got really way

31:35

, way more popular . You know it's like hey

31:37

, hey , blue . You've got your phones been

31:39

ringing all game . You've got three missed calls

31:41

and like , oh , what

31:44

an original . Well

31:47

, this was only three . You wish , by the way , we don't even go

31:49

about , we don't even wear blue , so we don't even go by blue

31:51

, because my name's Tripp . Nice to meet you

31:53

, scott .

31:55

Well , that's what I wanted to get into . Next , you're

31:57

known for your accuracy . I mean

31:59

, I was looking up some of your stats and

32:02

Was it ? Last year you almost

32:04

called a perfect game . You missed two calls

32:06

and a game and

32:08

it blew up Twitter and it went crazy .

32:10

It was pretty insane you know , I , I'm

32:12

gonna be honest with you , I don't . I don't have social media

32:15

number one , so I don't look at those things . I

32:17

do get told or wise man . Well , I

32:19

mean , if you're having a bad day , you should just type my name

32:21

into X , trip umpire , trip gifts

32:23

and you're gonna laugh Hysterically

32:26

. Mean people are . I

32:29

think one of my wife's from your one of them . It says it's

32:31

a trip gifts and sounds more like a NASCAR driver than

32:33

an umpire . I was like that's actually pretty good , I like that

32:35

. But , right . So

32:38

, you know , I pride myself on being the best I can

32:40

. And look , there's days where I woke

32:42

up , funny , and I'm just not seeing

32:45

the ball , like I did the game before , right

32:47

, the plate job before , and I

32:49

approach it Kind of like a hitter would , like I'm

32:51

trying to see it out of his hands , and

32:53

then I get to see it into the catcher's mitt where so

32:55

I've got like an , I got an advantage of like three extra feet

32:58

or Three and a half feet that a hitter doesn't get

33:00

to look at it that far . And then I get to kind of think

33:02

about it too , right . So as far as

33:04

accuracy , like I have good games , I

33:06

have bad games , you know , and I just

33:08

try to minimize the number of bad games . And

33:11

then again it goes back to what I was saying earlier about knowing

33:13

that you're not gonna be perfect . You have to kind of . You

33:15

have to kind of look at it . I mean , once you , once you've worked

33:18

thousand games , you know , once you've worked

33:20

a lot , of a lot of baseball , seen

33:22

a lot of innings , you look at like the things

33:24

Okay , what did I do right , what did I do

33:26

wrong ? And then you learn from it and you just

33:28

kind of move on . You just got to kind of wipe it clean , honestly

33:31

, like a hitter . I , you know , I'm trying to teach our

33:34

kids as they're getting older and I help out

33:36

with their baseball teams . It's like I call it amnesia

33:38

, baseball amnesia . You have

33:40

to like okay , what did I do right , what did I do wrong

33:42

? Okay , now we got to forget it , because if you

33:44

did great or if you did bad , well ,

34:24

you just kind of kind of wipe it and Move on to the next one . Yeah

34:26

, do the best you can , right , and so . And

34:28

then I will say this too there's a lot of different

34:31

media outlets out there that kind

34:33

of great us statistically

34:35

, and the one that matters is

34:37

is what we get from from baseball , and

34:39

I know that people don't see that one , which

34:41

is fine , but it all goes back down to

34:43

this like I'm gonna do the best I can . I

34:46

want to do my best I can , being a good communicator

34:48

on the field too , which is something I

34:50

actually pride myself in more . How

34:52

can I communicate with my relationships

34:54

on the field ? And when I say relationships like

34:57

I'm not going out having dinner with baseball

34:59

players , right , but how can I handle

35:01

myself in a professional manner To

35:04

know people ? And that's the other thing . You build

35:06

rapport , right . I mean there's players

35:08

that I've had in the minor leagues that are in the major , yeah , and

35:10

so I've known those guys . I mentioned the picture that I

35:12

ejected and you know what ? We get along great

35:14

now . I mean it's we laugh about it , right . And so

35:17

you build that rapport , you build that relationship , that

35:19

reputation , and it kind of comes , it

35:21

kind of preceded you a little , you know , and

35:23

so I pride myself on that and I do my best to

35:25

get to know guys like I want to know like

35:27

where they're from , where they played college

35:30

ball . If they played college ball , are they married ? They have

35:32

kids , you know , because that we have something to talk about . Yeah

35:34

, when you work in the bases , especially first , second

35:36

, third , you have more opportunity to talk . Now

35:38

with the pitch Timer these days you don't have as much opportunity

35:41

. You speed

35:43

that up , you gotta go right . But yeah , you

35:45

know accuracy is important . I want to be correct as much

35:47

as possible , but I know that there's gonna be years where I'm

35:50

gonna be better than I was the year before

35:52

or I might not be as good , but try

35:54

to minimize those . The best you can block

35:57

out all the noise , right the social

35:59

media noise . That the best I can right .

36:01

And then , yeah , just go out there and every

36:03

and every day is a new day , yeah you ever make

36:05

a call where , as soon as you made the call , you're like

36:07

oh , that was . Yeah , I was wrong there

36:10

. Did you kind of walk it off ?

36:12

100% , absolutely . We umpires

36:14

. We call that timing , and what

36:16

timing is is the moment you see

36:18

the play or you see the pitch . The

36:20

timing is that space , that

36:22

amount of time between seeing it

36:24

and actually calling it , and what

36:26

happens sometimes is your timing it's too fast . And

36:28

you see it , it's like oh , and you make a call , make it

36:30

this , oh yeah , and you're like , oh hell , oops

36:34

. So I got , I

36:36

got hired in 15 and

36:39

it 14 was the first year of instant replay and

36:41

I was hired because

36:43

of openings in the job , because of replay

36:45

. And you know I will say this about

36:47

replay I'm not on Sports Center on

36:49

rerun 16 times

36:51

because I missed a call that decided

36:54

the game and more replay fixes that . And yeah

36:56

, don't get me wrong , like I sleep better

36:58

Knowing that I didn't decide

37:00

a game and there are still plays

37:03

and calls that we can make that aren't reviewable . I

37:05

sleep better knowing that , but it still hurts

37:08

to get overturned by replay . Because I'm human

37:10

, I want to be great , I want to be the best , right

37:12

, and , like I just told you , you're not always gonna

37:15

be yeah , yeah , I was wondering .

37:16

If you make that call , you turn around you're like oh shoot

37:18

, nobody look at me , nobody look me in the

37:20

eyes right now .

37:22

You want to hide ? Yeah , I know .

37:24

So we're going into spring training now and you're

37:27

getting ready to roll down there . One of the cool

37:29

things about spring training is that organizations will bring

37:31

in their old players . They're legends

37:33

and kind of help out , be on the field

37:35

.

37:36

Have you ever been just awestruck by a Legend

37:38

that was just sitting on the field just hanging

37:40

out like yeah the first time that I want

37:43

to say awestruck , but just kind of like I'm in

37:45

his presence and you're probably

37:47

gonna hate me when I say this . Oh no , but I

37:49

got to work Derek Jeter's last year , all

37:51

right , okay , I'll give you a jeter . I'll give you jeter . The

37:55

way he handled me into

37:57

as an individual . He walked up and you

37:59

know they have our names , they know our names on the list of the dugout

38:01

. He's a hatred . How's it going ? Congrats on getting here , man

38:03

. You know , keep having a great year and it's awesome

38:05

. Just the way he he was so professional , was

38:08

like okay , he didn't have to even

38:10

speak to me , he didn't have to say a word , but

38:12

he went out of his way to do that and I just will never forget

38:14

it because my experiences with dealing

38:16

with him have are great , right so

38:19

, derek Jeter , and know that he's more of the

38:21

recent era , right Then

38:23

. Then , what you're referring to and I'm trying to think

38:25

of a guy offhand but you know , I've met so many

38:27

people . I you know what I met . I met Ozzie Smith

38:29

at the airport and growing up , you

38:31

know , with the Wiz , the wizard

38:34

, there , I just I was like , you know , meet

38:36

and help was super cool because , you know , I look

38:38

back at my childhood and he's the greatest shortstop

38:40

that I ever saw , you know , growing up , as

38:43

far as just the pure athleticism and the

38:45

things he can do . Yeah , and you do meet a lot

38:47

of people in this job , traveling , but my

38:49

family , when we were working , I opened

38:51

the season in Japan in 2019

38:53

. It was actually East Rose

38:55

last game , so he announced his retirement in Japan

38:58

, his home country , which was super cool Because

39:00

the Mariners played the A's and I'll

39:02

never forget and this is more for my wife , diana

39:04

, because she grew up in the Seattle area we were walking

39:07

through the hotel and she

39:09

had one of those like moments where you

39:11

could just she just let up this giant

39:13

gasp of air and

39:15

I'm like what he goes ? You can even talk

39:17

, she's pointed and it was , it was Ken Griffey Jr , oh

39:20

, you know , and and for her to be able to

39:22

experience that growing up here , that

39:24

was really rad . And then we ended up meeting him later

39:27

in that week . He was at the same restaurant

39:29

and we've been talking to him for a while . And then I worked

39:31

a series in Seattle and he was there on

39:33

like on Griffey Jr Night and

39:35

he ended up coming to the locker room and he met

39:37

my men , our boys , and we actually have a really cool

39:40

photo with him . Wow , and the boys . And so

39:42

for things like that for me means you know , mean the

39:44

most . It would a nice . You

39:46

know he's not playing anymore and I never umpire any of

39:48

his games , but what a nice man .

39:49

Yeah , one of the things I saw

39:51

being friends on social media with your

39:54

wife is last year you worked

39:56

the all-star game , which was in

39:58

Seattle , and I saw

40:00

some really cool pictures and your kids made

40:02

out like bandits . It was , take your kids to work day

40:04

.

40:04

Yeah , it was , you know , and you know , as umpires

40:07

, like I'm not gonna ask anybody for their autograph . I

40:09

was Seattle won an autograph . Neither autograph

40:11

or whatever . Yeah , but my

40:14

kids do , hold

40:16

them . I said and I go , look , this is all dependent

40:18

on how aggressive you can be and polite . And

40:21

I told the boys , I said , look , if you see somebody , you recognize

40:23

them , go up and ask them . You

40:25

know you're never gonna say you'll let yes , unless

40:27

you ask them . And if you do it respectfully

40:29

. You know , and they met a ton of guys . They

40:33

, they did . They actually sat

40:35

and talked to Ozzy Albie's for for a little

40:37

while . That was that was pretty cool . So , um

40:39

, yeah , that experience was great

40:41

. You know the best part of that you're working

40:43

the all-star game was fun , don't get

40:45

me wrong . But being in

40:47

the stands for home run , derby , sitting

40:50

with my family and , you know , to have a beer

40:52

, watching the crowd go crazy when Julio's

40:54

hitting home runs over the fence , like

40:56

that was really fun , like that was a blast . You

40:58

know , yeah , and here's a funny thing is

41:00

that when we got in the ballpark and I'm coming in through the concourse

41:03

, my wife's like , let me show you around

41:05

. I Know

41:08

the underbelly of the stadium . I don't know like which

41:11

place has the best broad or Seattle dog

41:13

, or which place has craft beer , like I

41:16

didn't know anything .

41:16

All right , you have to ask me us to four of my

41:18

seats . Where's the restrooms ? That's

41:22

fantastic when you're in spring training . Have

41:24

you ever seen somebody ? And you know , please don't name names

41:26

or I don't want to put you in , you know conflict

41:28

, but has there been somebody that you were watching

41:31

and you were like , oh my god , this

41:33

guy has it .

41:34

Absolutely , absolutely 100% . I mean I

41:36

can name a few names in it . I mean I , when

41:38

I had Freddie Freeman in double A and

41:40

he was miss graves , you just

41:42

knew he was gonna be a major league baseball player . And not only

41:44

just the major league baseball player , but a really good one

41:47

. You just knew he had that approach right

41:49

, anything that he still does , and what I'll say about this

41:51

too and this doesn't have to teach my kids late they

41:53

got works hard , I every

41:56

day to get better right , and that's

41:59

something that is very honorable

42:01

and admirable for him . Paul Goldschmidt was another

42:03

guy that I had early on . You know

42:05

that still , I mean to this day , like

42:07

working nonstop . I mean he

42:09

just a couple years off in MVP . There

42:12

are guys you know , but you know what . There's

42:14

guys that you would never have thought . I

42:16

remember seeing Jose Ramirez

42:19

and the Dominican Winter League and

42:21

then all of a sudden , this guy is like you know he's

42:23

a star , so it's , it goes both ways , it really

42:25

does because you almost feel just as

42:27

good for them when you see them and they're great

42:30

and they still stay great and they're kind . But

42:32

also the guys that surprised you too , you feel just

42:34

as good for them because it's like , oh wow , it

42:36

just goes to show , man , like you got so many great

42:39

athletes working so hard , it is so hard

42:41

, it's so hard to become a major league

42:43

baseball player . I mean it's extremely difficult

42:45

to become an umpire , I think I think less than 1%

42:48

of the guys that go to umpire school actually make

42:50

it to the major leagues as an umpire . But

42:52

I mean , I was looking at it up not too long ago there's

42:55

only been like 10,000 major league baseball

42:57

players ever . Oh wow , like

42:59

in the history of the game .

43:01

It's a crazy set yeah 100 and whatever

43:03

years , 100 plus years that's insane . So

43:06

, as a Red Sox fan , I noticed this statistic

43:08

. You ejected Aaron bleeping

43:11

boon .

43:12

I can tell you that anytime there's an ejection , it's

43:14

always called situational ejections

43:16

, meaning like a call led to

43:18

excitement , which the call

43:20

was either correct or incorrect . And

43:22

you know what . The ejections are just part of the game and

43:25

it all goes back to the way you handle people , right . And

43:27

when I look at the video of any ejection

43:29

and that one I've looked at too right , I

43:32

felt like I handled myself in a professional , respectable

43:34

manner and you know what , in that situation

43:37

, Aaron did the same thing , right . And when you have

43:39

those , most of the time they're defending their

43:41

player , boston . And

43:44

that ballpark is probably still one of my favorite ballparks

43:46

, even though it's so quirky . It's got such

43:48

a strange layout . You know the

43:50

way . It's just the different shape . And actually

43:53

I'm going to jump in and say this when

43:55

you think about sports stadiums , baseball

43:57

fields are probably the coolest because they're all different , whereas

44:00

like an NBA arena or hockey

44:03

or even , you know , soccer

44:05

and NFL , like they're all kind of the

44:07

field dimensions , most all the same . Yeah

44:09

, in baseball they're all different , but that's something

44:11

about working games there . Anyways , you

44:13

get a ladder on the monster , for goodness sake

44:16

. I mean , like , I mean there's , I

44:20

mean , but yeah , I mean , I actually remember

44:23

, like if I see the list of all them , I can't

44:25

tell you how many times I've ejected somebody and

44:27

ejections are only literally 1%

44:30

of our job , because my job actually

44:32

is to try not to eject someone , Just try to keep them in

44:34

the game , especially players , right ? If

44:37

I know two people are mad at me . Like , the player's job

44:39

is to play , and I'm going to . If

44:41

the manager does it the right way and he comes out and gets ejected

44:43

, he's keeping his player in the game right and that's what

44:45

I want him to do too , which because people aren't

44:47

paying to see me . Matter of fact , we just we

44:49

mentioned it in the very beginning of this podcast

44:52

Like I kind of want to be invisible

44:54

, Like I don't , and that's another reason why

44:56

it was I was upset after the game that I actually had an ejection

44:58

because I wanted to be invisible in that game

45:00

. I didn't want anybody to even know I was there .

45:03

How does the pay structure work on those games

45:05

? Do you hope for longer series

45:07

or do you like all right , if we could get a sweep ?

45:09

that'd be great . That's a great question , because we get paid salary

45:12

like a school teacher right Once a month . Postseason's

45:14

a little different . There's , you know , there's other things because

45:17

you got to get rewarded post seasons for

45:19

your body of work throughout

45:21

the year , but also kind of like a cumulative

45:24

amount of body of body of work for the last

45:26

few years to kind of get to different assignments

45:28

, like the World Series that I got so

45:30

fortunate to work in 2022 . Those

45:33

few years kind of led up to that and that

45:35

specific particular season . So , yeah

45:38

, you do , you do get paid extra for those

45:40

things . And so you know , working

45:42

a game , that's a sweep or not a sweep , there's no difference

45:44

. I mean , honestly , when you're doing your job like

45:47

you don't , you can't think about those things

45:49

. You just got to think about the next call . Because , if

45:51

you like thinking yourself , I just made a great call

45:53

. All of a sudden , boom , there's another call right in front of you , and so

45:55

when you go into those games like this past year I worked game

45:57

six behind the plate in the National League Championship

46:00

Series and I had to go into

46:02

that series me mentally going

46:04

it's going to go at least six games I couldn't

46:06

like , hey , it's going to be a sweep . And then all of a sudden , boom

46:08

, I got to work to play game six . Like I can't think that

46:10

way . Right , I have to prepare myself . Yeah

46:12

, and you know you didn't ask this , but

46:15

I'll say it . We fly commercial and

46:17

so we don't fly private charters , team

46:19

charters , like the players do , and so a

46:21

lot of times you have a night game on getaway

46:23

day , and you know , and you got to catch

46:25

a six am flight the very next day to go to the next

46:27

city to work a game that night . So think

46:29

about being wired and then having

46:31

to try to sleep three or four hours and then get up and

46:34

go to the airport and do it again . It's difficult , it

46:36

can be exhausting .

46:37

Oh , God , I bet you you got some serious sky

46:39

miles , huh .

46:40

Yeah , I've flown a lot , no doubt

46:43

a lot of hotel . So

46:45

you mentioned working though that Houston Phillies

46:47

game 2022 World Series

46:49

game where Houston's pitchers collectively

46:52

through the no hitter so the question people always

46:54

ask when they , when you work in no hitter or part

46:56

of a game like that , they all say when did you know

46:58

, you know , like when did you know there were no right

47:00

? I'm doing the third inning and

47:04

I remember my mind going , ok , bryce

47:06

Harper walked in the first , so the perfect

47:08

game's gone . And you

47:10

know , and most nerve wracking game

47:12

I've ever worked , and the main

47:15

reason was it was the World Series number one . Yeah , right

47:17

, didn't want to screw up Number two , I

47:19

didn't want to affect the no hitter one way

47:21

or the other . Right , I didn't want to be a part of the

47:24

reason why there was no hitter , I didn't want to be a part of the

47:26

reason why there wasn't . So I was just

47:28

like , ok , just slow down

47:30

, like timing , go back to that timing thing , like just

47:32

keep everything as slow as possible , stay

47:35

within yourself . I remember coming off the field

47:37

kind of in disbelief . We

47:39

go out to our tunnel

47:41

, kind of off to the third base

47:43

side of home plate there at Citizens Bank

47:46

, and we go up the tunnel

47:48

there and all of the media was

47:50

lined up in the tunnel and they had a ton of like Philadelphia

47:53

media and of course the

47:55

Phillies had just lost and it was stone

47:59

cold quiet because they just

48:01

got no hit . And it was such an eerie

48:03

feeling because I had just worked my first

48:05

ever home plate game in

48:07

the World Series , and I just wanted to

48:09

scream and celebrate , just

48:11

be like it was major accomplishment

48:14

. My family was there . Not only

48:16

was it my first game behind home plate in the World Series

48:18

, it was also a no hitter . I didn't know that it was

48:20

only the second no hitter . I mean

48:22

, the other one was a perfect game . So there's no way to really compare

48:24

it the two because

48:26

what Don Drysdale does , it's different

48:28

than combined . It's still amazing

48:31

, amazing that it happened so crazy

48:33

. Yeah , everybody in the tunnel was dead

48:35

quiet so we had to like . When we got in the locker room

48:37

. That's when all the umpires were like , oh my crewmates go

48:39

, are you kidding me ? Because , look

48:42

, I didn't pitch the ball , I

48:45

didn't throw the ball first , I didn't hit the ball

48:47

, I didn't do any of that stuff Right , but

48:49

I was a witness of one of the coolest

48:51

events , if not the coolest event of the 2022

48:53

World Series , one of the coolest events in the World Series , and I was

48:55

just fortunate enough to be the guy wearing the

48:58

mask behind the plate .

48:59

It's so crazy . When I was doing the research on

49:01

it I was looking at it all up . I didn't realize

49:03

that that was only the second one as well . And

49:06

an interesting connection to this was

49:08

one of the umpires that was in the 1956

49:12

Don Larson game . His name

49:14

is Hank Soar . He is from

49:16

Pawtucket , rhode Island , my hometown . His

49:18

son was the private

49:20

school head coach for every single sport

49:22

and was an amazing guy , has

49:24

fields named after him . We played against

49:27

him when I was in high school and it was just kind

49:29

of that is cool . I think I'm really reaching for it . That's

49:31

what I'm doing .

49:32

No , no , I don't think so at all . I

49:34

think things like that are interesting .

49:36

It was a really , really cool thing to

49:38

see . I mean , you're going to be in hundreds

49:41

more crazy games too . I mean the

49:43

things that you're going to see . It's got to be so exciting to

49:46

go to the field every single day . I'm so jealous

49:48

Last year .

49:49

I worked first base for Michael Lorenzen's

49:52

no hitter and Philly , and I draw

49:54

a blank on who the visiting team was . It might have been the Nationals

49:56

. I didn't work home plate but I was such

49:58

an honor for us as umpires to be a

50:01

home plate umpire for one of those games and

50:03

it kind of becomes like a stat that guys keep up with

50:05

like , oh , you've worked a couple no hitters , you

50:07

know whatever . But I was so thrilled for

50:09

the guy that got to work , my crewmate . They got to

50:11

work home plate because it was his first one . It

50:14

was a complete game and he threw a ton of pitches

50:16

and it was just . I was just

50:18

happy for him . When we walk

50:20

off the field I had to make the joke

50:22

Because this was the season later from

50:24

the World Series and I had to make the joke . Man

50:27

, I haven't seen a no hitter here since , oh , the last

50:29

World Series , because it was the same ballpark

50:31

in the outfield . I don't know .

50:34

Who are some of the funnier players giving you some

50:36

grief and joking around with you out there ?

50:39

Well , you know what offhand I can't think

50:41

of guys . But I'll say this I'm

50:43

not really a big jokester on the field

50:46

, Like I do have laughs , right , no , you're wrong , but

50:48

I always feel like the guys that talk the most

50:50

are guys that have more

50:52

than two or three , four years in the major leagues , Because

50:55

the guys that are a little more comfortable being there , but

50:57

also they know they're going to be there and so

50:59

they're a little more , you know a little more . They

51:01

talk more , right , the guys that kind of talk

51:03

to you more . And there's tons of guys I've

51:06

thought of some names , I don't think I want to name them , but yeah , they're

51:08

, yeah , no , no , no , I feel like what you've been around

51:11

a little while , guys that are more comfortable

51:13

not only talking to you because

51:15

you've been around a little while , but just talking in general

51:17

, right ?

51:18

So you mentioned your boys were

51:20

playing some ball . Did they feel any added

51:22

pressure ? Because their dad knows every single

51:24

rule possible in this game that

51:26

they're playing . You know what's funny .

51:28

I don't think they've really thought about it . I

51:30

don't think they could care less because

51:34

they've been around it so much . Now

51:36

I mean , I

51:38

have told them and tried to tell them to . Well

51:41

, first and foremost I'll say this Actually , I'm

51:44

obviously not a fan of any team

51:46

or player . It's all gone for

51:48

me . I'm a baseball

51:50

fan and I love

51:52

it that they get to be fans of

51:54

teams , fans of players and

51:56

keep up with it . And I don't ever

51:59

tell them stories about things unless

52:01

they ask . And nothing negative

52:03

, obviously , because I don't want to skew

52:05

their perception of things . But

52:09

for them to be able to be fans is

52:11

important for me and to know the game . But

52:14

when they think about at least the way I see

52:16

it , when they think about me as an umpire , I

52:18

think they just say , yeah , my dad has a job on TV

52:20

umpire's games . It's not really

52:22

that big of a deal to them . I don't

52:25

know . But then again , I don't know how it

52:27

would take it either . I mean , they've been in the World Series

52:29

, they've been to All-Star Game , they've been

52:31

to tons of games . It's

52:33

not an old hat . They love it , right , they love going . But

52:36

I don't even know . I don't know what they talk about with their

52:38

friends . Like , yeah , my dad's a majoring umpire . He

52:41

goes to a job where he gets yelled at and

52:44

booed on a regular basis . Hundreds of

52:46

thousands of people in the world don't like him and they

52:48

don't even know him .

52:49

Their best friend's dad is a mailman . Nobody

52:52

booze him all day long , I know I

52:54

know , I don't come to your job and yell at you . Yeah

52:56

right . Are

52:59

you a big fan of other sports ? Do you watch other

53:01

sports on TV ?

53:02

Yeah , definitely , we're Seattle Seahawks

53:04

fans , and some people always go wait a second

53:06

. You're from Kentucky . Well , let me put this in perspective

53:09

. When I was growing up okay , the

53:11

Rams of St Louis were in

53:13

LA the first time .

53:15

Yeah .

53:15

The Tennessee Titans were in Houston as

53:18

the Oilers Yep Right , cincinnati

53:20

wasn't really that good of a team at the

53:22

time . Kansas City is too far , atlanta

53:25

is too far I mean , at least for me to be a and

53:28

so I didn't really have an NFL team . College

53:30

basketball is probably my favorite sport now

53:33

, especially since Kentucky

53:35

. Kentucky's always been competitive

53:38

and good . Oh yeah , every team , every

53:40

squad , has their ups and downs and years are great and years

53:42

are not whatever , but college

53:45

basketball is definitely my favorite . And then the

53:47

NFL . And then the Kraken has just come in

53:49

a couple of three years ago into

53:51

Seattle and we actually went down to the Winter

53:53

Classic , which was the outdoor game

53:56

at T-Mobile , which was super cool , yeah

53:58

, super great experience . That's awesome . And yeah

54:00

, I've been to quite a few Seahawks games . We're sports

54:03

fans . You know our boys . They play baseball

54:05

and basketball and they've done flag football

54:07

in the past and my dad was

54:09

a collegiate golfer and so I grew up in a house

54:12

where golf kind of was

54:14

king for a long time . We grew up on golf

54:16

course and , yeah , we just kind of do

54:19

it all . And since I've

54:21

lived in Washington now almost 12 years , especially

54:24

with my wife's family , we've kind of become more outdoorsmen

54:26

and hunting and fishing

54:28

and hiking and

54:30

just being outside . We live on a lake and

54:32

we love water sports , love

54:35

snow sports . We just got back from a nice

54:37

ski trip and , yeah , just love

54:39

doing everything , doing everything we can . But yeah , college

54:41

basketball is my favorite . I mean college basketball , yeah

54:43

. I mean it's a nice Wednesday . Kentucky plays LSU

54:46

.

54:46

Do you ever feel for the officials of those sports

54:48

?

54:49

Yeah , you know what Sports officials is ? A

54:51

big fraternity it is . It's like

54:53

a big community and I know

54:55

tons of guys in the NBA , nfl

54:58

, nhl . We

55:00

all have a very similar job . It's

55:02

interesting how our season begins

55:05

and the NBA season ends kind

55:08

of right about the same time . I probably know more

55:10

NBA officials than I do other

55:12

sports . But yeah , I mean , if I'm in town and

55:14

you know , let's say I'm in , you know in Chicago

55:16

and the Blackhawks are playing , you know , I'll try

55:19

, I'll find out who's officiating the game . I'll either go or meet up

55:21

with them afterward . You know if I have a day off

55:23

or whatever . And then you know , depending on

55:25

the type of year it is like this year

55:27

at spring training will be in . I'll be in Arizona , for

55:29

you know a few weeks and

55:31

the Suns are in town , I'll find out who the officials

55:34

are and we'll probably meet up and , you

55:36

know , talk about the game or might even go to the game

55:38

, you know , and maybe they'll want to go to a spring

55:40

training game . So it's kind of fun doing it that way .

55:42

Yeah Well , tripp , this has

55:44

been fantastic . I'm so

55:46

happy that you were able to do this . I'm honored . This

55:48

has been really cool , eye-opening , definitely

55:51

eye-opening , and I hope the listeners feel the same way because

55:53

, you know again , major

55:55

League umpire is something that people don't really think about

55:57

. It's not something you just wonder how that guy

55:59

got his job . You just watch your game and

56:02

it's really cool to hear kind of all that backstory

56:04

and to hear your successes over

56:06

the years . So thank you again .

56:09

Scott , it was a pleasure , man . I enjoyed it

56:11

. It's not hard to talk

56:13

about yourself , that's for sure .

56:16

I'm an old child , so I have no problem with it either . All

56:20

right , cool . Thank you so much again . Best

56:23

of luck with the season , spring training

56:25

, regular season and everything else . We'll

56:27

definitely be rooting for you and watching for

56:29

you and hopefully get to Fenway a couple of

56:31

times this coming year . Definitely have

56:34

a great season .

56:34

I appreciate that . Yeah , I love going

56:36

to Boston . It's just a great town .

56:41

It's only my 14th episode . I'll catch on

56:43

Danna's printer is going off .

56:47

Sorry , if I can hear it , Danna , what

56:49

are you doing ? Yeah , there we go .