Harold Mann Talks With Umpire Terry Falgout

Harold Mann talks with Terry Falgout about the challenges of being an Umpire and his experiences.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We are talking Southeast Texas. Weare joined by Terry falgu umpire here in
Southeast Texas. A little e gumpire. First off, when we talk about
your recent experience in Williamsport, justtalk about the background umpiring Little League right
here in Southeast Texas. Sued.Well, thanks for having me on here.
I appreciate it. My background withumpiring, uh started when my children

(00:24):
begin playing locally at West End LittleLeague and there's always a need for someone
to call balls and strikes and safeout. And so it was all the
dads that would, you know,start off with blue blue jeans and not
a whole lot of gear on.You just borrowed gear and wore the gear
on the outside of your jeans andthings like that, and then you just

(00:45):
progress. And I happened to takea liking to it, and I was
around a good group of men thatwould volunteer their time umpire Littleague Baseball,
and it just caught on for me. You know, one thing I want
to talk about would talk on thisbriefly then move on. You know,
they're kids out there, and whenyou guys are out there volunteering your time,

(01:06):
I know you're hearing an earful sometimesfrom the fans, and you know
that that needs to be stopped.I mean, let the kids play,
Let the umpires do their job.Sure, and I understand the angst.
There's a lot at stake these dayswith the kids that can advance onto college
with college scholarships, and then theprofessional what players are being paid these days.

(01:32):
I understand parents want that for theirtheir children, but I agree with
you there's a massive shortage of officialsin all sports, and the primary reason
is just the flat that's being handedout. Some people can handle it,
others cannot. I tend to ignoreit. But I think for me,
I process criticism in a way thatit's either gonna help me get better and

(01:57):
improve. Did I really that calland I missed that pitch? You know,
you can take it that way,you can take it very personally.
If you take it personally, you'renot gonna last very long. Visiting with
Terry falgu he's Beaumont guy, SoutheastTexas guy, back from the Little League
World Series in Williamsport. Bottom line, this is all volunteer. You pay
your own expenses, you don't getpaid when you're out there. Why why

(02:21):
why do it? I mean,for just the love of the game.
It's an absolute love of the game. It's the love of the craft as
well. And it's really interesting.Back in May when we brought the sixteen
volunteer Empires up to Williamsport and wemeet with the Little League staff, the
one thing I asked them to dois stop referring to me as a volunteer
empire. A lot of umpires thatgo there are college officials. I'm a

(02:43):
high school official as well. Alot of them are high school officials.
And we just happened to volunteer fora Little League and so I've taken,
you know what I've learned from SoutheastTexas and Texas District twelve and into Waco
Southwest Region and happened to be veryfortunate enough to advance to this level.
And just it's either in your bloodor not. Just talk about the experience

(03:06):
of Williamsport. It's really difficult todescribe. And I tell people it's my
grace Land, it's my mecca,you know type of deal. There's an
atmosphere at Williamsport unlike anything you'll everexperience because it's all volunteer that the team's
are very very competitive, the gamesare very competitive for the most part.

(03:29):
You know. I try to describeto people. Let's say you go to
a any ballpark, literallygue ballpark inthis area, and I want you to
take that environment, that background,and put twenty five thousand people and surrounding
that that you know, uh,two hundred and forty foot fens and to
twenty five It changes the perspective,and so the baseball's cleaner. Uh,

(03:53):
it's really really good baseball. Butthe crowd, just the energy from the
crowd makes it really really special.Uh. The international kids just talk about
that a little bit. The languagebarrier, how do you communicate? Was
some from Taiwan, some of themfrom crosso Just how do you communicate with
a language barrier? That's really difficult. And so what you're gonna do is

(04:15):
you're gonna use, you know,slow down your speak in speaking. I
speak very very fast. I wasonly able to use one word that I
knew, and I had the teamfrom I guess it was South America,
And it was a little jockey andgoing on between a kid at first base

(04:35):
and the pitcher and the catcher andhe kept on antagonizing. So all I
could say was no, Moss.That's all I can tell him, and
he looked at me. He knewwhat I was talking about, just to
kind of cut it out. Butother than that, it really is just
hand gestures. The several years ago, we had a kid at Lamar playing

(04:56):
baseball and he played in the LowWorld Series. Is from the Houston area,
and he talked about the international kids, how respectful they are and how
respectful they are to the game.They really are, and it's it's a
it's a pleasure to when you getat that level. These guys have have
been fire tested with the competition justto get to the League World Series.
When they're there, they don't wantto do anything to jeopardize, you know,

(05:19):
their continued participation. It's it's madefor television, it really is.
And so they know that their friendsare watching back home. They don't want
to do anything to embarrass themselves ortheir family or their teammates. You know,
when you and I were growing up, just that championship game on Saturday
was always saw on TV. Nowevery game is televised exactly, and it's

(05:40):
happening at all levels now, soUH, the Junior Senior League, UH,
the Intermediate League, all those games, Regionals and World Series are being
televised, and uh, you knowa side note. I'm originally from Late
Charles, Louisiana, and when Iwas twelve, I played on an All
star team. We were won onegame away from the World Series. We
lost one to nothing down in Florida. And so a lot of the folks

(06:03):
that are responding on my Facebook orsocial media are those players and our coach
about you know, how close wewere to that experience. And so it
made it real personal for me withTerry falgu an Umpire who recently called the
Little League World Series and you're acrew chief, You're a chief, one
of the top guys there, andhow does that make you feel when they
give you that respect? You know, it's interesting. I don't understand how

(06:25):
it happened, quite honestly. Ithappened so quickly. The crew chief program
just started last year. I wasone of four selected to go as a
crew chief, and I don't knowthe selection process, and people are asking
me. My friends that want togo and be a crew chief are asking
me. I don't have the answer. Got to call the US Championship game
California versus Texas, How exciting wasthat it was an honor. It was

(06:47):
a surprise. I can be honestwith you. The crew chiefs went up
there originally should to just teach andmaintain their crew and work with the crew.
Jerry Davis, the xmlb umpire,is now the consultant for Little League,
and he's setting up a pattern withthe umpire system as they do in

(07:09):
MLB, so they're gonna be crewchiefs. On the field. We worked
more games than we ever had.I got one game last year as a
crew chief. This year I probablyworked seven or eight and the US Championship
was a surprise. But what anhonor. And I can't think of the
young man's name, but the guythat I ended up a kid end up
hitting a home run on Sunday forthe World Championship. You say you're looking

(07:30):
up at him. That's a bigguy. He's no small small twelve year
old. He's very tall. He'sa good looking kid. And most of
those kids out there are really reallyfantastic athletes, and they're even better with
kids, you know, they're veryrespectful. And he hit that ball.
I happened to be a third baseon that championship game. Did you know
what's gone when it came off thebat. I'll tell you a secret,

(07:53):
and you could ask the second baseumpire, Dave Miller from California. When
he was on deck, I lookedat him and I said, we're having
a walk off. And when hehit it, I mean, you know,
you just look back and go there'sno doubt about this when it's absolutely
gone. Women, you have femaleumpires as well. H Tracy Duet,
She's a fantastic umpire. I've calledwith her for quite a few years at

(08:15):
Regional. She's from the Houston areaand she works really really hard at this
craft and it is that it's it'sa craft, and she attends a lot
of training in Waco Southwest Region andshe did really well. She made herself,
made herself real proud. Any humorousstories you can tell us when conversion
with a twelve year old. I'ma motor mouth, quite honestly, and

(08:41):
I normally do you you're from Louisianaand you're a motor mouth figure figure figure,
You're right. I didn't have alot of conversations at on that stage
Regional and above the most talking alldues. If I'm behind the plate and
my mask is on, you can'tsee me talking to the catcher other batter.
But you don't want to present anappearance of favoritism. So I will

(09:05):
talk a little bit here and there, but mostly as much as I can
do it, I'll keep my mouthshut. Have you ever had a catcher
tell you, oh, come on, you miss that one? Absolutely?
Absolutely? I had one of thefirst pitches. I think it might have
been the US Championship game. Thecatcher asked me, was that two balls
out? And I said, oh, he said, was that two balls?

(09:26):
I said, two balls? Whathe goes out? I said,
sure, that was close enough,but it was a ball. I talked
to catchers to let them know,hey, bring him up, bringing him
down, bringing in, bring himout. Just let him know a little
bit about my strike zone, right, you know, because strike zones are
like fingerprints. Although there is adefinition of the strike zone. Absolutely and
and see, I think a ballup of letters is not a hittable pitch,

(09:50):
right, You're gonna pop that upconsistency from and that's what you try
to do. And that's it's likeI said, it's a fingerprint. And
so that's best you can do.Visiting with Terry Falgue and We're really proud
to Terry representing Little League Baseball fromright here out from Louisiana but now lives
right here in Southeast Texas. Theneed for umpires here locally talk about that,

(10:11):
there's an absolute need. There's ashortage nationally. I think two years
ago we lost fifty thousand officials acrossthe US. Locally, again, you
know, we're aging out. Ijust turned sixty one years old. I
don't know how long I can dothis, but I'll give it a whirld.
We need some young fresh legs outthere. It is a craft,

(10:35):
but there's plenty of opportunity for trainingand the best way to get involved and
just go help at the local league, whether it's you know, from District
twelve goes from Jasper down here toBridge City and Beaumont. So just contact
the league and say, hey,how can I come out and help?
And right now they're just putting coachesand dads out there, which is how
I started. However, most ofthem don't want to be out there as

(10:58):
an empire or a long term,so we just need to, you know,
have the parents kind of understand.The more you chastise an umpire,
the less opportunity. Your kid's gonnahave an umpire on the field. Terry,
A real quick here. I wantto thank you for coming by.
First off, Terry Valgue, andthank you because you're doing this for our

(11:18):
youth, and that's what it's allabout, our kids, it really is.
And again, I mean, youknow, my pleasure with this is
working with kids. You know,I've I've got three of my own and
they all played sports and they neededofficials as well. And so for someone
to go out and volunteer and helpmy children, I've got no problem going
out there and doing something I love. I mean if I if I didn't

(11:39):
enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. This was your third trip out,
It's my third trip out. Iwent in twenty fifteen as an umpire one
of sixteen, and then invited backas a crew chief last year. And
again I didn't pay anyone off.I have no idea how I got there,
but I appreciate the opportunity and it'syou know again, and I'm just

(12:00):
going to continue working. I'm nota perfect umpire, I'm not a perfect
person. But you just continue workingat the craft and make yourself better and
make yourself available. Will you goback and vest I beg to go back.
That's one of the first things Isaid when we met with Tom Rawlings,
who's the head of umpire development forLittle League, the four Crew chief
for meeting with him, and Isaid, Hey, look, I'm just
gonna make this comment right now.If you want to bring this four back,

(12:24):
I'll be happy to come back.Man. I envy you bad.
I really do, because I wantto thank you for what you do for
our youth. Thank you for stoppingby to beyond this week's talking Southeast Texas
and good job I mean, becauseyou're doing that for the kids in our
future. Thank you very much.I enjoyed and I appreciate the opportunity to
sit down and talk to you.