Authoritative Resources:

Rules:

• Official Baseball Rules (OBR)

• National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS/FED Rules)

• NCAA Baseball Rules

• Little League® Rules Instruction Manual

Mechanics:

• Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) Umpires Manual

• NASO/Referee Baseball Umpiring Mechanics Illustrated (2 and 3 person HS crews)

• NASO Oregon Baseball Umpires Manual for 2 and 3 person HS crews (similar except in pdf)

• Little League® Field Mechanics Manual for 60' Diamond

• One Umpire Mechanics (Central Coast Independent Umpire Association)

Links to other references:

(for those who don't like to read Authoritative Sources) 

• Umpire Bible

  • 2-man start Mechanics ​

  • Batting out of order

  • Awarding Bases

  • OBR-NFHS Rules Differences

• DH Cheat Sheet (NFHS) 2021

• NFHS Batting Out of Order

• Line up Card Management

• Dropped Third Strike Signal Mechanic (Base Umpire)

• Baseball Umpire Quiz

• Boston University MLB Umpire Study (on strike accuracy)

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My Journey to Umpiring:

I started out playing baseball in the 1960's but there were no travel teams beyond Little League in the 1970's so I played tennis and golf.  After my academic and architectural training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University, I pursued yacht racing for more than 25 years and was Commodore of the Setauket Yacht Club and member of the Stony Brook Yacht Club.  Fast forward to 2011... my son didn't make the middle school baseball team so he and I together worked hard to improve his skills.  He got on a travel team, went to Cooperstown (CDP) and learned to pitch.  He made the JV and Varsity baseball teams in High School and spent two years on a showcase team with his varsity coach Lou Petrucci.  As a full tenured SUNY professor and former Department Chair, I've seen the demands of NCAA baseball and advised him that baseball was too intense to achieve an elite GPA and pursue funded undergraduate research opportunities.  Ultimately, he decided not to pursue collegiate baseball and chose an academic path in pure mathematics leading to a PhD program at a top research university. The problem was... I missed the game when he gave it up!  Umpiring was the perfect fit for me.  It has the right mix of rules, mechanics, timing, temperament and athleticism.  In short, I love baseball umpiring and am enthusiastic about learning and improving!  We all have our journey in baseball umpiring and this is mine.