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Tales from behind the plate
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| H&N photo by Todd E. Swenson Charlie Roberts has been an umpire in the Klamath Basin for 40 years. |
June 4, 2007
For 40 years, Charlie Roberts has been a familiar face at baseball games around the Klamath Basin.
Roberts umpired many of those, and he still gets a lot of satisfaction from calling the games.
“I do it now because I enjoy the kids,” he said. “I retired from baseball once before, and I hated it, so I decided to get back into it.”
Just about every baseball player who has come through the Basin in his time knows Roberts. He is likely the most personable umpire to ever put on the blue shirt.
During games, he likes to talk to the batters if he is behind the plate, or on the bases, when that is his duty.
“It's fun to see the kids laugh at the things I say during the games,” Roberts said. “I tell them all kinds of things. I compliment them on a nice play and just tell them to have fun.”
Games can take a turn for the worse when coaches, and to a lesser extent fans, get too into the game. Roberts has thrown a few people out of games and says two incidents standout.
The first was when he was working an Oregon Institute of Technology game against Eastern Oregon University.
“There was a really strong wind from the south,” Roberts said.
“Eastern had this guy that ran by me and threw two handfuls of dirt at me. As I was waving the dirt away from my face their coach said I called someone safe, and I had just been waving the dirt from my face.”
The coaches then appealed to the plate umpire who ruled the runner was out, and they were not happy with the call.
Roberts said there is no magic word that will cause a coach or a player to get thrown out of a game. What leads to an ejection is when a player or coach gets personal with the umpire, and in this case, the EOU coach did.
First guy ‘jacked'
Roberts said that coach was the first guy he ever jacked, or ejected, from a game.
The second incident was between OIT and a traveling team from the University of Washington. There was a play in the game where one of the baserunners fro Washington missed third base and Roberts called him out. The UW coach appealed to the home plate umpire and he backed up the call made by Roberts, much to the dismay of the UW coach.
“He said some pretty bad things,” Roberts said.
Roberts admits to his own fallibility on the baseball diamond, and says in his first few years in the business he was not very good. He also admitted that he, like all umpires, misses calls from time to time, but the missed calls are just that.
Coaches calls
“Coaches will come out and tell me that I missed a call,” he said. “My response is always to tell them, ‘Maybe I did. There is nothing I can do about it now, let's go on from here.' Usually that works and they don't say anything else.”
Umpires also have to put up with taunts from fans.
Roberts said the key is to not let what the people in the crowd say bother you.
“People say some things that they should not say,” he said. “But when you have been doing this as long as I have, you get pretty good at blocking stuff out.”
Roberts said working with kids is what keeps him involved.
“It's still fun to work with them,” he said. “When it is not fun anymore, maybe then I will give it up for good.”
- By Ross L. Timbrook
For 40 years, Charlie Roberts has been a familiar face at baseball games around the Klamath Basin.
Roberts umpired many of those, and he still gets a lot of satisfaction from calling the games.
“I do it now because I enjoy the kids,” he said. “I retired from baseball once before, and I hated it, so I decided to get back into it.”
Just about every baseball player who has come through the Basin in his time knows Roberts. He is likely the most personable umpire to ever put on the blue shirt.
During games, he likes to talk to the batters if he is behind the plate, or on the bases, when that is his duty.
“It's fun to see the kids laugh at the things I say during the games,” Roberts said. “I tell them all kinds of things. I compliment them on a nice play and just tell them to have fun.”
Games can take a turn for the worse when coaches, and to a lesser extent fans, get too into the game. Roberts has thrown a few people out of games and says two incidents standout.
The first was when he was working an Oregon Institute of Technology game against Eastern Oregon University.
“There was a really strong wind from the south,” Roberts said.
“Eastern had this guy that ran by me and threw two handfuls of dirt at me. As I was waving the dirt away from my face their coach said I called someone safe, and I had just been waving the dirt from my face.”
The coaches then appealed to the plate umpire who ruled the runner was out, and they were not happy with the call.
Roberts said there is no magic word that will cause a coach or a player to get thrown out of a game. What leads to an ejection is when a player or coach gets personal with the umpire, and in this case, the EOU coach did.
First guy ‘jacked'
Roberts said that coach was the first guy he ever jacked, or ejected, from a game.
The second incident was between OIT and a traveling team from the University of Washington. There was a play in the game where one of the baserunners fro Washington missed third base and Roberts called him out. The UW coach appealed to the home plate umpire and he backed up the call made by Roberts, much to the dismay of the UW coach.
“He said some pretty bad things,” Roberts said.
Roberts admits to his own fallibility on the baseball diamond, and says in his first few years in the business he was not very good. He also admitted that he, like all umpires, misses calls from time to time, but the missed calls are just that.
Coaches calls
“Coaches will come out and tell me that I missed a call,” he said. “My response is always to tell them, ‘Maybe I did. There is nothing I can do about it now, let's go on from here.' Usually that works and they don't say anything else.”
Umpires also have to put up with taunts from fans.
Roberts said the key is to not let what the people in the crowd say bother you.
“People say some things that they should not say,” he said. “But when you have been doing this as long as I have, you get pretty good at blocking stuff out.”
Roberts said working with kids is what keeps him involved.
“It's still fun to work with them,” he said. “When it is not fun anymore, maybe then I will give it up for good.”
- By Ross L. Timbrook
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