I was recently stalking the foul lines of a Pinto game nervous as any parent in the stands. I had no kid up to bat. I had no pitcher on the mound. I didn’t even know the score.

I was there watching the newest Pinto umpire on the field, my daughter, Sophia Santo.

As a retired teenage umpire myself, I can remember the nervous energy as you were about to make the call. You always knew that one side was going to like the decision, but the other may have a differing opinion. Not wanting to be a helicopter parent, I had to let my child learn from her errors and take her lumps like some of the Bronco umpires had to do when they were starting out. As you can imagine a tough position to be in as a father.

The reason for this little write up is twofold:

First, I think it is great that the league gives kids a chance at their first real job. My daughter had studied the rule book and gone to the umpire training sessions. She tried to be as informed as possible before she stepped out on the field. Whether she continues to pursue this hard life of the thankless blue, she will always have a sense of accomplishment in having set a goal and achieved it. If you have a child or teenager that would like to umpire a few games, I encourage you to let them try next year. After one game, I definitely saw a change in my daughter’s self-esteem. So a big thank you to Paul Homrig and CYB for taking a chance on a rookie and allowing her the experience and growth.

Secondly, I would like to say how thoroughly impressed I am at both the fans and the coaches. They have been nothing short of patient with this new umpire and several times offered her tips on where to position herself on the field and how to improve for the next game. There is not one person reading this article that did not have a learning curve when they started their first job and this one is no different. However, with umpiring, you have the unenviable position of having 50 spectators, players, and coaches evaluating your performance for two hours every time you punch in. After her last game, a few parents went out of their way to tell her she did a good job. For any umpire, that’s gotta feel good. So a big thank you to the coaches and families on the Pinto field for their support and encouragement.

So if you see me biting my nails in the stands, stalking the outfield, or pacing the foul lines, it is not because I have money riding on the game. It is because a proud father is nervously watching his little girl grow up.

Joe Santo