GRIND FOR FUTURE SUCCESS
Two local umpires looking ahead to summer assignments
Think about the astronomical odds of becoming a professional baseball player and reaching the major leagues. Then think about the fact that there are 10 times as many MLB players as MLB umpires.
Throw in the fact that top officials keep their positions barring injury, retirement or death, and you’ll get a sense of the challenges facing local prospects seeking to one day don the black MLB umpire uniform. They travel on the road day after day in the minors in poor conditions for minimal pay, just like the players they officiate, with both angling for “The Show.”
“You have to know the right people and be in the right place at the right time to earn that opportunity,” said Brandon Snyder, a local umpire in Kern County. “It’s like winning the lottery.”
In January 2020, Snyder and fellow Bakersfield umpire Steel Rogers, his friend and protégé of sorts, attended the Wendelstedt Umpire School in Ormond Beach, Fla., joining a cohort of 154 umpires-in-training seeking to learn from current officials and earn a spot at MiLB’s evaluation course down Interstate 95 in Vero Beach, from which a select few earn jobs in the minor leagues.
Rogers, just 21 at the time, made it to the second stage, but two years later is still waiting for his own spot in the minors. For now, while Snyder spends the summer working in the Pioneer League in the Rocky Mountains, Rogers will officiate in a collegiate league in the upper Midwest, the Northwoods League.
“And if I don’t get a chance to get invited,” Rogers said, “I plan on trying to go back to school this upcoming year and try to go earn a spot outright.”
It’s all part of a grind that Snyder said leads some aspiring umpires to return to Wendelstadt as many as four times.
“It’s all about how committed you are,” he said. “Are you hungry? Do you want it? Do you want to live your lifelong dream?”
Snyder started refereeing in August 2008. He was connected with the Kern County Officials Association by an old coach, starting with football before expanding to basketball and eventually baseball under the guidance of local official Bob Williams.
“Baseball was my cup of tea, it’s what I played for like 15 years, so I had a really good understanding,” he said. “Or at least I thought I had a really good understanding.”
Rogers started umpiring coach-pitch games not so long ago, as a teenager (“My dad was making me pay for stuff, so I had to make money somehow,” he said), and fell in love with it quickly. When he played baseball at Cerro Coso, he would drive back home after Friday and Saturday games to come umpire.
The two are currently established as collegiate umpires in the Western State Conference and Central Valley Conference, which include Bakersfield and Taft, respectively. Snyder said he also works in a pair of NCAA Division II leagues, and is hoping to make it to D-I and work with conferences like the Big West, West Coast and Pac-12.
The path to professional baseball, though, runs through Florida.
When Rogers and Snyder were at Wendelstedt, legendary MLB umpire Joe West told them their job is to “protect the integrity of the game of baseball.” Umpires learn that being an official is about looking the part, being true to yourself and, of course, knowing the rules.
“You better be prepared,” Snyder said, “because if you’re not prepared, baseball is going to do one thing: it’s going to expose you.”
The mechanics of earning a MiLB opportunity are complex. Wendelstedt sent 25 candidates to the advanced course in Rogers and Snyder’s year, including Rogers.
But from there, the amount of openings in the minors varies from year to year. Being near the middle of the pack might be good enough one year and not the next.
That’s partly because of the way professional umpire contracts work. They are frequently 20-year deals. Once entering the minors, Snyder said, prospects are expected to rise through the ranks from rookie ball to AAA within 10 years. Along the way, many are either released or decide the work’s not for them. Then, once they get to AAA, it’s all dependent on turnover in MLB, which rarely happens because it’s “a dream job,” Snyder said.
And one day the clock runs out on a minor leaguer.
“Unfortunately, the cards just don’t align for you,” Snyder said, “and they basically end up releasing you and say, ‘Best of luck.’”
The bleakness of this timeline means MiLB looks for young umpires to fill its
ranks — “I know where I stand,” the 40-year-old Snyder said.
That’s why he has his sights set on rising through the more favorable college ranks, and why he’s looking forward to his summer gig with the Pioneer League. He’s an avid fly fisherman heading to the perfect part of the country for that pursuit — though he’ll be working six days a week and spending his day off traveling.
For Rogers, the Northwoods
League is the best option available as he stays in touch with umpire assigners and angles for another chance at the advanced course.
“My number one goal right now,” he said, “is just trying to get my head back in there and always keep my name around, and connected.”
With a gig in the minors, enough luck and a decade of hard work, he could one day find himself in The Show.