EP14 Tripp Gibson: Behind the Plate - The Life of a Major League Baseball Umpire

Ever wonder what it's like to make the split-second calls that can turn the tide of a Major League Baseball game? Join us as seasoned umpire Tripp Gibson pulls back the curtain on the often invisible yet intensely scrutinized life of a professional umpire. Through a tapestry of tales, Tripp recounts his unexpected journey from player hopeful to esteemed MLB umpire, transporting us from the dusty diamonds of minor leagues to the electrifying buzz of the World Series.

You might think you know baseball, but Tripp's candid revelations on the sacrifices behind the mask – the long stretches away from family, the weight of critical eyes, and the unshakeable support from his wife – are bound to offer a fresh perspective. Imagine proposing to your partner amidst career uncertainties or welcoming a child into the world as you navigate the unpredictable tides of minor league umpiring. Tripp shares these pivotal moments with the warm authenticity of a friend, illuminating the complex interplay of personal life and professional ambition.

Sit back and savor the rich tapestry of stories featuring baseball legends and unexpected encounters that even the most die-hard fans seldom hear. From calling a historic no-hitter to amusing run-ins with players outside the park, Tripp's experiences underscore the respect and camaraderie that underscore the spirit of the game. Whether he's regaling us with locker room elation or reflecting on the pure joy of his children meeting their sports heroes, Tripp's love for the game and his role within it shines through every word.

Tripp is also very involved in https://www.umpscare.com/

My sincere apologies to Tripp and the MLB umpires for not covering this amazing organization within the podcast.  The work they do for kids is wonderful and I hope everyone checks it out and supports them whenever you can.  We've made a donation to this worthwhile cause and hope that you can do the same here:

https://www.umpscare.com/support-us/show-your-support/

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Episode Transcript

Scott (00:00):
My next guest is Tripp Gibson.
Tripp has been a Major LeagueBaseball umpire for over 10
years, since his big leaguecall-up in 2013.
Over the past 11 seasons, he'sbeen part of the umpire crew for
over 1150 regular season games,28 post-season games and was
part of the crew for the 2023All-Star Game in T-Mobile Park.
Note for his outstandingaccuracy behind the plate.
Tripp's been involved in somehistoric games, including Game 4

(00:22):
of the 2022 World Series, inwhich the Houston Astros pitched
a combined no-hitter only thesecond no-hitter in World Series
history after Don Larson'sperfect game in 1956.
Tripp Gibson, welcome to CarneySaves the World, scott, thanks
for having me, man, I appreciateit.
Thank you for being here,sitting down and thinking about
you coming on.
I'm wondering you know, and I'msure other people out there are
how does one become an umpireLike?

(00:43):
Where does that start and whatwas your journey like?

Tripp (00:45):
That's funny.
You say that.
You know, I get to ask thatquestion a lot because people
are like so did you just like,wake up one day and go, I want
to be a Major League Baseballumpire?
Well, that is not how thathappened.
I did not wake up a MajorLeague umpire.
And the other funny thing, whenyou were reading my bio, was,
like, do I really have almost 11years experience in the Major

(01:06):
Leagues?
Like that's, it's kind of flownby.
I want to start by saying thisbefore I go into like you know
how you become an umpire, butyou read all those things and
I'm just like well, I'm also ahusband and I'm a father.
So it's like, and I think thatwhen people look at people on
television, first and foremost,they get lost in the fact that,
like, oh well, trip probablydoesn't even have a mother,
right, he's just some name ofthe umpire that everybody wants

(01:26):
to hate, right, I actually got asense of humor sometimes too.
Yeah, right, you know, myjourney really began, you know,
at an early age.
I started playing baseball whenI was six, and for me it was
just something to do in thesummer, right, as a young kid,
and I got pretty decent at it.
You know you're making likeseven eight-year-old all-star
teams.
And then I started playing youknow a little more, what they
call travel ball, now selectball.

(01:47):
It was a travel team and I gotinto 12, 13, 14 and grew up in
western Kentucky in a littletown called Mayfield which, if
anybody remembers, a majortornado hit my hometown two
years ago, this past December.
But I grew up in a really smalltown, kind of in a river region
where the Mississippi River andthe Ohio River meet is where
I'm from and that little hotbedof western Kentucky and southern

(02:10):
Illinois and, you know, southof eastern Missouri, southern
Indiana, like western Tennessee,even that little corner of
Arkansas.
It's a hotbed for sportsbecause the climate, you know it
gets cold in the winter but itgets hot in the summer and so
the climate is reallyadvantageous for baseball.
I mean there's tons of baseballbeing played in that area, you
know, and I got to where I waslike 12 and 13, 14 and I got

(02:33):
pretty good, like I was reallygood for a travel ball team out
of western Kentucky and you knowwe were going in the summers to
, you know, denver, colorado,omaha, nebraska, you know, down
in Florida we were traveling alot playing.
You know high level baseball and, like a lot of us baseball fans
out there, I wanted to be amajor league baseball player.
I wanted to be a guy that wasgoing to either wear at the time

(02:54):
because where I grew up right,the Cubs were really popular
because they were on WGN.
You know, you had Bozo, theclown that was on the, the
Shawnee before the 120 Cubs game.
You had the White Sox thatweren't far.
The Cardinals were the closestteam.
You got KMOX Radio, Jack Buckon the call and you got TBS,
which broadcasted the AtlantaBraves all over the planet.

Scott (03:16):
Well, yeah, they were the first ones.

Tripp (03:17):
Yeah, and when you grew up in that little area like
baseball's huge right.
So I wanted to be a majorleague ball player and as I
started playing more and moretravel ball, more select ball
and kind of getting better andadvancing, got into high school
and I really had my mindset ongetting better in high school
and I was like you know what tomake this, I've got to get into
college baseball.
I got to be a college player Iwas like, okay, I'm going to

(03:38):
have a, hopefully get ascholarship somewhere, big.
You know.
Growing up in Kentucky, atleast for me, wildcat basketball
like kind of runs the state,right, oh yeah, you've got horse
racing, you've got Kentuckybasketball and there's that
little bitty section around thistown called Louisville that's
Cardinal fans but the whole restof state's basketball fans.
So I wanted to go to theUniversity of Kentucky or

(03:58):
University of Tennessee and sopeople were like the Vols, why
would you go to the Vols?
And for me it was all aboutproximity to home.
It was a heck of a lot furtherto Knoxville than it was to
Lexington and I wanted to getaway.
So, figure came, I had a couplelike little offers junior
college, little Christian school, nai, and I don't know if it
was just intuition something hit.

(04:20):
And I was like you know what mydad was pretty upset when I
finally told him, after allthese years of work trying to be
a major league ball player andbeing the best baseball player,
I could little switch, hitter,leadoff hitter, center fielder,
fastest lightning hit.
Okay, could run like the wind.
But yeah, like you know whatDad, I think I'm done and he's
like well, why I go?
Because if I go to this littleschool and this is just me it's

(04:41):
not for everybody, right, but itis for some people, but for me.
I was like some of thesecredits won't even transfer when
I go to a bigger school.
I don't want to waste two yearsof my life.
And my dad was like what,you've had this dream since you
were probably six, seven, eightyears old and you wasted 18
years already.
Oh right, I mean you'rethinking about it.
You're like well, in thesummers I played for a coach.
It was actually Murray StateUniversity's head baseball coach

(05:02):
.
He was my summer coach forquite a few years there and he'd
kind of told my dad hey, likeif he comes to trial probably
can get him a locker it's a walkon, no guarantees he'll play
right.
And so I just, I was like I'mdone.
I hung my cleats up and kind ofgiving you the rest of the
story.
My father was also my baseballcoach, high school coach.
He was my employer.
I worked for him.

(05:23):
He had his own business.
I was his little gopher.
We were doing home theaterinstalls.
I'm running wires through Atticsunder homes and you know I
don't have a fear of spidersanymore because of that.
Right, I became his repossessman.
I'd have to go like repossess,like TVs and appliances,
refrigerators for people thathadn't been paying.
That's no life for a 16, 17, 18year old kid.

(05:45):
Yeah.
So it's like dad had a deal.
I'm going off to college andthey had convinced me.
My grandfather, who really has alot to do with this actual
story, my grandfather came to meand he's like hey, everyone
your cousins except for one isgraduated from Murray State
University in Murray, kentucky.
It's like 30 minutes away, right, I didn't want to go to school
30 minutes away, I want to go toschool seven hours away.
So I was done working for mydad.

(06:07):
I was done living with my dad.
I was done playing baseball formy dad.
My dad's like well, somehowyou're going to have to pay for
your car insurance, your gas,books, food, dorm.
He's like what are you going todo?
I'm like I don't know.
And he goes well, I heard thatthe local youth league, the
recreational park, got named PatPowers, who I will the
beginning of my umpire andcareer to.

(06:28):
He's since passed.
I went down to a local park andhe's like hey, I've got a game
for you.
You want to work behind homeplate in your first game?
I'm like not really.
And he's like well, I paid 25bucks.
So I went and worked the game.
I had my hat on backwards,which, if anybody's ever watched
a major league game and paidany attention to the umpires and
I hope that you don't pay muchattention, you don't wear your

(06:49):
hat backwards I looked like afool, probably.
I felt like a fool and ofcourse, I did the best I could,
but in the fourth inning Iejected the head coach my very
first ever game first game and Iknew the coach too.
But after the game walked overto Pat, over at the concession
stand, you know, before you getyour hot dog and I soda and

(07:10):
handed me my check and he saidthanks for giving it a shot.
And when I went to grab thecheck out of his hand he
wouldn't let go and I was like,actually, pat, I loved it every
second of this.
Can I, can I have more?
He's like really, you want tokeep doing this?
So, yeah, I kept going.
I showed up the next day andkept showing up the next
weekends and I Got into it, youknow, doing like these little

(07:31):
tournaments, like the ball.
I was playing it, you know 10,11, 12, 13 and I found myself I
wanted to be the home plateumpire for championship games or
tournaments.
I wanted to be getting to highschool baseball, got into high
school ball within a coupleyears, and even while I was at
Murray State University yes, itdid take me five years to get
out of there I mean, too, I wasactually umpiring Division 1
baseball games while I was incollege and what I found and

(07:54):
this is gonna be mind-blowingwhat I found is I actually loved
umpiring more than I ever did,playing Really Kind of weird
even say it now.
Yeah, and what I did is I hadthis drive like I wanted to be.
I wanted to be the best dressed, I want to be in the best shape
, I wanted to be the most knownas far as like respectable trip
has a good strike zone, tripdoesn't miss a lot of calls, he
shows up on time or early, youknow, and he always looks

(08:15):
professional and that was kindof like my theme.
You know, this journey keepsgoing right at this point I'm
just 23 years old, about theturn 24, and through my
fraternity and I gotta givemention, I was a pike, pike,
kappa, alpha.
It was actually a greatexperience for me because what
it did was it taught me to bethe best I could individually
but for a team almost likeplaying ball for a team like you

(08:35):
want to be the best fraternityon this.
And and one of my fraternitybrothers older guy that was
working for the University atthe time he's like, hey, I know
a major league umpire.
I'm like really who?
He's like Larry van over.
He lives in Owensboro, kentucky.
I'm like Owensboro is only anhour and a half away.
I go to a rotary club eventlunch meeting, met Larry.
Within a week I got a.

(08:55):
Through the regular USPS I get aregistration form for Harry
Wendell's, that school forprofessional umpires, really
based out of Daytona before, andit was a note Signed by Harry
Wendell's that, who was alongtime National League veteran
.
Yeah, and I said hey, but letme see, at our umpire school I
registered, graduated college,murray State, december of 2005,

(09:19):
went to Daytona Beach, enrolledand started on January 2nd 2006
to start my journey inprofessional umpiring at Harry
Wendell's at school.
Wow, that's great.
Yeah, that's amazing.
It's like yesterday.
But then again, when you'verestart reading the biome, like
man, I've been a part of a lotof cool things.

Scott (09:35):
You really have now.
You go through school, yougraduate one by our school.
How long is that process?

Tripp (09:41):
on first school five weeks Okay, it's six days away
off on Sundays.
When I say this, I want topreface this statement by saying
I don't mean military style,but it's got a military format,
whereas and Harry was a USMarine, retired US Marine and
before he went into Umpiring inthe National League, and so the
way it was set up is it?

(10:01):
You have classroom in themorning and then you have field
work.
There's calisthenics, there'sformation and lines where
everything's regimented andeverybody's working together,
which I really like.
That approach like where you'reyou're trying to be the best
individual you can't, to be thebest class that you can be.
Yeah, five weeks long, and wow,I was a very naive person, I
guess, because I thought at thattime there was a hundred and
seventy five students that weregonna take 20, the top 25 To go

(10:24):
on to an advanced training.
There's two umpire schools atthis time.
There was the Jim Evans Academyit was a longtime American
League umpire and then HarryWendell said school.
They took the top 25 from eachclass to go on to an advanced
placement into the minor leagues, almost like another tryout.
Okay, so essentially, umpireschool, five week long trial and
they're trying to see if youcan learn the stuff.

(10:45):
They're teaching the rules.
You know, we went through theentire rulebook in five weeks,
you know, and it's my god kindof crazy to think about it now.
Yeah, and it's the rulebook.
It's been, I guess, changed onthe layout, the form of it, but
it used to be like one of thoseadventure novels where it would
say if you want to go to drivehis car off the cliff, turn to
page 58.
If you want him to turn around,turn page 22.

(11:07):
The rulebook used to be likethat.
You go through that, you learnhow to work a two umpire system
which, when I graduated with,from a hundred seventy five
students in my class, I finishedsomehow two in my class, number
two, wow, and Got hired in themto a minor league baseball.
Thank you, summer, wow.
So then you did the minor leagueroute.
Yeah, nine years in the minorleagues, I man.

(11:28):
I started out in the New YorkPenn League.
I've never been to New York andnever been to Boston, and I
remember I was the driver.
So like that means I had my carright, my little.
I was a Chevy cobalt.
So the Chevy cobalt, my leaguemeeting was an Aberdeen,
maryland.
I was at a Baltimore, the ironbirds, cal Ripken juniors, his

(11:50):
corporation, or they own theteam.
They probably still do.
And my first assignment was lowMassachusetts, home of the
spinners low spinners.

Scott (11:58):
There we go.
Yeah, yep, go up north.
It's not for Patek Rhode Island.
Did you ever make the rounds tothe McCoy State in the Tuckett
Red Sox?

Tripp (12:05):
I missed what was called used to be called the
international league.
Yeah, triple A for me was thePacific Coast League.
Okay, which has always beenlaughable for me, it was named
the Pacific Coast League becauseit used to be all the West
Coast, but when I was thereNashville, memphis, new Orleans,
omaha they were on the PacificCoast League.
I'm like this is anything butthe Pacific Coast.
This is like three time zones.

(12:25):
Are you kidding me?

Scott (12:26):
Yeah, it was so weird.
I grew up in Tuckett, I workedfor the concession stands and
kind of behind the scenes stuff.
But you know we saw a lot of,you know umpires come through, a
lot of players come through andit was interesting because the
international league wassegmented towards the Northeast
for a while.
And then Late 90s, early 2000s,they started jumbling
everything up and you get a WestCoast team and you're what the

(12:46):
hell's going on here?

Tripp (12:47):
Yeah, and actually the interesting part about the
international league is thatthere used to be a team in
Ottawa.
Yeah right, part of theinternational league.
Another reason, and I thinkeven Puerto Rico, way back in
the day.
But yeah, the minor leagues,you know it's changed a lot even
since I was there.
But you know, when Harry wasthere they had like a, b, d.
You know a, b, c, d levels,like they had all these little
towns.
Like you know, north Carolina'sgot some teams.

(13:07):
You know I went to Greensboroback in the day trying to think
of other teams in North Carolina.
I went to, oh, raleigh, therewas it.
We were in Zebulun.
That was double a when I was,when I was in the Southern
League.
But yeah, nine years, nineyears in the minor leagues,
driving either my car, driving aminivan with two other guys, I
believe me as a single man,driving a minivan, nothing,
nothing says loser.

(13:28):
Oh, I'm gonna be man.

Scott (13:30):
Nothing keeps you single, huh.

Tripp (13:32):
Yeah, exactly matter of fact, when I met my wife, we
were I was in double a, and so Ican vividly remember her flying
to Huntsville, alabama, with abroken ankle and Her riding the
minivan going to the ballparkwith us.
Oh, that's love.

Scott (13:48):
So you know, working for the second red sox I saw you
know a lot of you know with theclubhouse attendance did and
you're doing laundry and I'vealways wondered this who did
your laundry?
Did you guys just do your ownlaundry, just wash your own
clothes and no, that's a greatquestion because a lot of people
don't think about it.

Tripp (14:03):
No, we had club.
We have clubhouse attendance aswell, and, all right, it would
be either the home or visitingclubhouse attendant for the team
.
Most of time it'd be thevisiting guy.
They would be assigned to ourlocker room and so you know they
would take care of us.
They provide, you know we'dhave a couple waters and they
get.
You know, in the locker roomWe'd have a locker room, just
you know, to shower after thegame.
Get ready, pregame we used torub all the baseballs and I can

(14:25):
remember rubbing dozens andhundreds of dozens of baseballs
Long ago.
You know we don't even touchthem anymore.
Yeah, the clubhouse attendancewould take care of us and you
know we'd tip them for theirwork.
Well, they provide food afterthe game and you know, even in
the lower minor leagues you'dwalk in there.
There might be two bearssitting there.
You know, one for you and yourcrewmate and you know you are to
that.
So, yeah, and then now themajor leagues, like we, get some

(14:47):
of the best treatment you canimagine.
And when you think about howmany games Baseball players play
you know, 162 in the majors youknow it would be like 140 to
144 in the minor leagues,depending on the league and the
umpires.
You know, in the minor leaguesyou're working all those games
Like you don't have any time offin the minors.
And so when you're working allthose games, like when you get
after the game and you get undera shower, you leave, you come

(15:09):
back.
It's so nice to have you cleanclothes and In the major leagues
my trunk ships ahead.
So after the game I pack it upand it's gone to the next city.
When I go from New York toMinneapolis, when I get to
Minneapolis my locker is readyto go, everything's set up,
ready to go.
So it's so nice having that.
It's a luxury.
Honestly, it's a major luxury.

Scott (15:28):
Oh nice, you earned it.
You know you've been through somuch just to get to there.
I heard on another podcast yourstory about your call-up.
As you're telling, I wasdriving and I'm listening to it.
I started kind of as such ahuge, huge baseball fit.
I started welling up.
It was such an awesome story.
Would you mind telling tellingus about the day you got called
up to the major leagues?

Tripp (15:48):
Yeah, I remember it had been about a year and a half
lead up to this to betterexplain.
So I say on task and targethere with my story when you get
the triple a, it's kind of likeput up or shut up time All the
things you've learned in singlea which you know.
There used to be four levels ofsingle a and then you spent two
or three years in double a andyou hit all those levels.
Right, players get promoted,they bounce from single a.

(16:09):
All of a sudden they're intriple a, they're in the big
leagues two years later, right?
Well, that doesn't happen foran umpire.
So when you get hired you'reexpecting 10 years.
You get the triple a and you'relike okay, my goal now is to
make major league springtraining.
I want to be a call up to workor an invite.
Like you see, these playersThey'll sound like minor league
contract invite to major leaguespring training.
So that's kind of what you wantas an umpire.
You want to get that invite.

(16:29):
And I got the triple a and Ihad a great crew chief, great
crew.
I was, you know, about topropose to Dana, my wife and you
know I'm like thinking, okay, Iwant to get to major league
spring training.
But to get major league spring,you have to go to the Arizona
fall league first, which is kindof where they send the hot
prospect players to you.
Go there, you're under like amajor microscope.

(16:50):
It's almost like umpire schoolagain, but it's a super, super
competitive, which is good,because competition makes you
better right A lot of the time.
Half to almost all the guysthat go to the Arizona fall
league, because there's usuallyonly like 12 to 15 umpires that
go, all you know, out of triplea those guys are not on what
they call the call-up list,meaning I can get called up to

(17:11):
work for a sick, injured,vacationing umpire, who you know
.
Maybe they're going to theirdaughters high school graduation
, whatever, so that I'm not onthe call-up list yet.
That's why I got to go to thefall league, did well in the
fall league, go to major leaguespring training and so on 2012,
I go into Major League Springtraining my first ever, scared
to death not really scared todeath, but nervous, right, I
don't want to screw up.

(17:32):
This is my big shot on the bigstage, even though this is not
even the Major League yet, andafter spring I get awarded a
number, and so I'm number 73,and that was the number they
gave me in 2012.
And so I went all year as acall-up on the list, right, and
I didn't work.
Dana and I had our first sonthat July and kept thinking
maybe the last week of theseason I'll get called up to

(17:53):
work to Seattle.
We got married in September andit didn't happen, right, and
that's pretty bummed, you know,and we're a religious family, we
have a lot of faith and kind ofjust prayed a lot about it and
was like you know what?
I need to stop worrying aboutall this and just let things
happen, because I'm a bigbeliever of like, if you just
put your nose in the groundstoneand go do your job, like good
things will happen, right.

(18:14):
And so that's kind of what Idid.
Went into the next year, 2013,you know, go to Major League
Spring training again, and sothis is a year later after
getting my number being on thecall-up list and not being used,
and I saw some other guys thatwere kind of with me in that
group, the Fall League, andthey're working in the Major
Leagues and I'm not, you know,I'm not jealous, but I'm more or
so just kind of angry at myself, like that I screw up, and I

(18:38):
guess it was.
So.
My first game was July, the 8thof 2013, in Phoenix, arizona,
the Dodgers of the Diamondbacks.
But it was like two weeksbefore that and I get a phone
call and it's my boss and he'scalling me and he's like our
liaison supervisor between he'sa Major League supervisor but
he's between he handles all theAAA umpires and another

(19:00):
supervisor who handles AAAumpires, and they're kind of
like going so trip, you know,how do you think you've been
doing lately?
And I'm like I think I've beendoing pretty good, you know.
And he's like, no, no, notreally seeing that, not really
seeing that we've got someproblems.
And so I'm on the phonethinking like, and so they go,
hey, we're gonna patch in thisother boss.
And so they patch him into thecall.
So I'm sitting on the call, I'mlike I'm about to get reamed.

(19:21):
I am literally about to getreamed.
And they're like, yeah, so youknow, we were thinking might
need you come two weeks from now.
I'm like, okay, he's like, yeah, how would you like to make
your Major League debut inPhoenix, arizona, the Dodgers
are playing the Diamondbacks andI'm so excited At that time, if
you go back and look at history, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks

(19:43):
literally had a bench clearingbrawl.
Like a couple of days beforethey made, they gave me this
call and so I'm thinking tomyself I'm gonna have a brawl,
I'm gonna have to handle this inthe Major League.
I'm freaking out and I'm likeI'm so ecstatic.
I called the crew.
I was like, hey, let's go tolunch.
And so we went to lunch and I'mthe crew chief and I bought
lunch and I'm like, hey, I gotsome news and we celebrate and
everybody's so excited.

(20:04):
And a couple of weeks go by,I've made all the phone calls to
everybody.
I'm trying to get everybodythere my dad, my stepmom, I'm
trying to get my mom there, mywife, kid and, you know, all the
grandparents, let everybodyknow.
And it's almost like one ofthose things when you build
something up too much, it'salmost like I don't want to let
them down.
So like part of me didn't wantto tell hardly anyone because I

(20:25):
didn't want to like screw up andfeel like, well, tripp got a
cup of coffee in the MajorLeague, that was it right.
I didn't want to be that guy.
I guess one of the funnierparts of this story is the day
before I left to fly to Phoenix.
I was in Nashville, tennessee,working in the National Sounds,
and I don't recall who thevisiting team was, but the
sounds were the Brewersorganization.
I'm not going to name thepitchers name.

(20:45):
He's still pitching right now,to this day, but he's pitching
and I'm working first base.
In AAA it's three umpires,sometimes four, but I'm at first
base and there's a ball hitdown the right field line.
That is what we call a polebender, so it kind of wraps
around the pole right.
You've been to plenty games theFenway, you got Pesky pole
there.
Oh yeah, such a pain in therear, but it's so cool because

(21:07):
it's just an odd layout.
You know the field and the fansare right there on top of
reaching over the fence.
Anyways, this ball is hittingthe air and I've got it above
the pole.
The minor leagues, these foulpoles, are not like Major League
foul poles.
They're pretty short, soanything hit high enough is
going to be above the pole.
So I kind of got it wrappingaround the pole fair, it's all
point the ball fair.
And before I knew it the pitcheris going crazy Like I'm talking

(21:30):
crazy and I'm like stop, stop,stop.
I ended up ejecting him.
Right.
The manager comes out.
He is calming me down.
Calming him down, he's like hey, tripp, I think you got it
right.
So he's like defending me,right.
But he's trying to get hispitcher, who probably had been
shelled that game and he givesup a home run.
He's mad.
So the game ends, the nightends.

(21:53):
Of course, I have to type upthis report.
By the way, when we have anejection, it's literally like
two hours of report writing.
Serious, yeah, because you gotto get all the language right
and it goes to attorneys and itgoes to the Major League
Baseball Players Association andthe office and all these people
have to read.
It's a legal document, right?
Oh, wow, that's nuts.
And I get it because there'sany assessiveness.
You know there could be fines,there could be suspensions,

(22:15):
whatnot.
I got to make sure that I'mhandling as professional as
possible what you do.
The game ends, the night ends.
I've got like a 430 AM wake upcall flying from Nashville to
Phoenix and of course, I'm insuit and tie.
I'm flying first class for thevery first time ever because I'm
going to the big leagues.
And guess who starts loadingthe plane?
The Nashville sounds.

(22:35):
They start loading the planeand I'm sitting there in first
class and they're all sitting inthe back of the plane, right,
because they're flying to thenext city.
And I see the pitcher and hestops and looks at me and he
goes hey, tripp, what are youdoing up here?
And I go I'm headed to the bigleagues.
Baby, I just thrown him out thenight before.
Now I'm headed to the bigleagues.
It was a pretty funny moment,that's awesome, yeah.

(22:56):
And then man getting the likeyou said, getting the call, and
no one that I'm going down intohistory books is working in the
major leagues.
You know having my wife, my sonthere, and I remember.
So I started at second base andI worked with retired Major
League umpire Tim McClellan, ohyeah, retired Major League
umpire Marty Foster, and thencurrent crew chief Marvin Hudson

(23:16):
.
I'm at second.
I think in the second inning Ihad a call at second where I
called Hanley Ramirez out.
It was all of a sudden like theboom the butterflies were gone.
I was like I'm a Major Leagueumpire.
I mean, I went under contract,but I'm like here I am, it's
awesome.
Worked first base the next nightand there was a incident where
the Marvin had the plate and hehad to issue warnings, meaning

(23:36):
he had to warn both teams.
The dugouts, the players, likeI think a batter got hit might
have been on purpose, and so I'mthinking to myself I'm going to
have the plate tomorrow,there's going to be a brawl, I'm
going to have to handle thebrawl, I'm going to eject the
pitcher.
I don't know what's going tohappen.
Right On July 10th of 2013, Iworked home plate for the very
first game ever and if, as if, Iwould forget it it went 14

(23:59):
innings.
Oh my God, five hours and like15 minutes.
Are you kidding me?
First game, are you serious?
Yes, 14 innings.

Scott (24:07):
Like I just want to go to bed and beat.
Wow, that's crazy.
There's also spring training.
I mean it gets spring traininggood.
Full season it's post season.
I mean that's just a long time.
How do you manage being on theroad that long?
It's got to be crazy.

Tripp (24:22):
That's an interesting question.
So I got hired full time in2015 and in the year of 2014,.
And I'm going to go into thatanswer, but you just asked me in
a second.
In 2014, I taught at HarryWendell's that's Empire School
for 10 years as well.
So in 2014, I taught the wholemonth of January.
The first week of February inDaytona I was gone for my family
and then I went to Major LeagueSpring training starting the

(24:44):
end of February.
So I was home for like two anda half three weeks and went to
Major League Spring, went rightinto the season.
I worked basically the entireMajor League season.
I was up as a call up right.
So I was still tripling umpireworking in the major leagues and
I bounced around from Del Scott, retired American League umpire
, became full time major leagueumpire when they joined staffs
in 2000.
Worked with him half the seasonand then with the guy named Tom

(25:06):
Halyan, who was also retired,and a couple other crews in
there as well.
But I worked 149 games thatyear.
So I got taught at umpireschool Major League Spring
training, the full season.
In August they called me andsaid hey, you haven't been to
Winter Ball yet, we're going tosend you to the Dominican
Republic.
Oh my God.
On top of that, to answer yourquestion, 2014, I was gone from
my own Personal bed 322 nights.

(25:29):
Oh my Lord, that's crazy.
Um, and then I got hired inJanuary of 2015.
So I was in the Dominican whenthey hired me.
And, to answer your question,think about, like number one,
what my wife had to put up withwhen I was in the minor leagues
of being gone, especially thatyear in 2014.
We had a young son and I wasjust gone.
I mean, they got a few times.
I mean they only think, cometravel with me for a couple of

(25:50):
weeks, they come out for aseries or two, that's it Right.
I mean, if we've got St Louisand Kansas City and we could
drive together or or what youknow, and now the kids are
getting older and being gone.
People always say, like you know, what's the hardest part of the
job?
My answer is always the samethe hardest part of the job is
also the part I like the most,which is the travel.
I love traveling, going todifferent cities, different

(26:13):
restaurants, meeting new people,having my family come out, but
the travel is what keeps me goneand it is extremely difficult.
You know my boys are gettingolder, they're playing sports,
you know they're in school andthen being able to come out
doesn't happen as often as whenthey're little, yeah, Right.
And you know, Dana, to be anumpire's wife.
Not only do you have tounderstand that well, number one

(26:34):
, I'm not curing cancer, Right?
So even though people hate meand they don't even know who I
am, they have to understand likenot really the real world.
I mean Twitter, X, whatever.
It's not really the real world.
I mean it's not like having aconversation face to face with
somebody, and so anybody,anything that people say about
me, it's just low and awesomesteam, yeah.
And you know, once you get pastthat and then you understand

(26:55):
that your husband is gone andshe has to make all the
decisions, like basically, she'sbasically she has to live like
a single parent until I get homeon an off day or vacation week
or whatever.
So I can't honestly imagine thethings that she goes through
until she tells me but it's likeman, it's almost impossible.
Like it really is, Like yougotta have a very, very tough
spouse, yeah, and you know so.

Scott (27:17):
I worked with Danna at Boston Beer, and she was
traveling for a while too, so Imean, that's got to be, you know
, just so hard on her, but she's, she's an angel, you know,
being able to do that and to letyou live your dream too, you
know, to let you do what youlove to do.

Tripp (27:31):
Well, that's funny too is that I knew what I signed up
for to be a major league umpire.
So when people get upset withme, like that's just part of it,
right, I'm doing the best I can, like I'm gonna try to get
every call right.
I know that I'm not going to beget every call right, it's not
possible but she knew that thiswas my dream and it's amazing
that you know she signed up forit right.
Sometimes I'm like I can'tbelieve you actually signed up

(27:51):
for this crazy wild ride.

Scott (27:53):
Did you not know any other men?

Tripp (27:57):
I'm thankful, yeah right, our two sides of crazy kind of
go together so.

Scott (28:02):
So does she?
You know, if she's in a gameand you're there and the other
crowd turns on you, does she get?
Does she feel it?
Does she get all fired up andwant to scream back?

Tripp (28:10):
You know, I think that she's probably heard me boo so
much it doesn't even faze her.
I will say this in 2017, Iworked the world baseball
classic oh wow In Miami and Ihad to play at the plate.
It was Dominican Republicversus Columbia and it's the
bottom of the ninth.
Columbia is the home team andthere's one out with a runner at

(28:30):
third.
So Columbia's got a runner atthird and the game's tied.
So this run wins the game.
I can't remember the hitter,but he hits a fly ball lazy fly
ball to left field for outnumber two for the catch, right.
Well, the runner third tags up.
This is the winning run of thegame and this is the world.
So we have two countries thatare trying to beat one another.
The ballpark in Miami, theMarlins stadium, is packed.

(28:52):
I mean I'm talking, oh yeah,huge fan base and Dana's there
and she showed me videos afterthe game but like, literally,
there was like little partiesgoing on in the stands as if it
was like the greatest day of thepeople, this people's lives,
that were there, all the runnerout to send in an extra innings
and Columbia they're all leavingthe dugout about to celebrate
and high five their runnerbecause they're gonna win the

(29:13):
game right, except for I Calledhim out, so there's no, there's
no winning of the game.
It's we're going extra inningsand all those guys like rushed
me and ended up having to ejectlike six people.
Oh no, and if you freaked outand security actually had to get
her, they brought her down thelocker room.
She was just worried for mebecause she's like I'm never
seen anything like that before,like that, that type of a yeah,

(29:33):
all like on you.
I mean like you hear it from thestands, but I mean she does, I.
We don't hear.
We don't hear the booze.
I mean we feel the energy, butyou're so focused on what's
happening in front of you thatbig crowds, you don't hear the
comments at all.
Small crowds where you hearsome things.
But yeah, I remember.
I mean this is kind of an oldone, but I remember the minor
leagues when the cell phones gotreally way, way more popular.

(29:54):
You know it's like hey, hey,blue.
You've got your phones beenringing all game.
You've got three missed callsand like, oh, what an original.
Well, this was only three.
You wish, by the way, we don'teven go about, we don't even
wear blue, so we don't even goby blue, because my name's Tripp
.
Nice to meet you, scott.

Scott (30:14):
Well, that's what I wanted to get into.
Next, you're known for youraccuracy.
I mean, I was looking up someof your stats and Was it?
Last year you almost called aperfect game.
You missed two calls and a gameand it blew up Twitter and it
went crazy.

Tripp (30:29):
It was pretty insane you know, I, I'm gonna be honest
with you, I don't.
I don't have social medianumber one, so I don't look at
those things.
I do get told or wise man.
Well, I mean, if you're havinga bad day, you should just type
my name into X, trip umpire,trip gifts and you're gonna
laugh Hysterically.
Mean people are.
I think one of my wife's fromyour one of them.

(30:50):
It says it's a trip gifts andsounds more like a NASCAR driver
than an umpire.
I was like that's actuallypretty good, I like that.
But, right.
So, you know, I pride myself onbeing the best I can.
And look, there's days where Iwoke up, funny, and I'm just not
seeing the ball, like I did thegame before, right, the plate
job before, and I approach itKind of like a hitter would,

(31:10):
like I'm trying to see it out ofhis hands, and then I get to
see it into the catcher's mittwhere so I've got like an, I got
an advantage of like threeextra feet or Three and a half
feet that a hitter doesn't getto look at it that far.
And then I get to kind of thinkabout it too, right.
So as far as accuracy, like Ihave good games, I have bad
games, you know, and I just tryto minimize the number of bad
games.
And then again it goes back towhat I was saying earlier about

(31:32):
knowing that you're not gonna beperfect.
You have to kind of.
You have to kind of look at it.
I mean, once you, once you'veworked thousand games, you know,
once you've worked a lot, of alot of baseball, seen a lot of
innings, you look at like thethings Okay, what did I do right
, what did I do wrong?
And then you learn from it andyou just kind of move on.
You just got to kind of wipe itclean, honestly, like a hitter.
I, you know, I'm trying toteach our kids as they're

(31:54):
getting older and I help outwith their baseball teams.
It's like I call it amnesia,baseball amnesia.
You have to like okay, what didI do right, what did I do wrong
?
Okay, now we got to forget it,because if you did great or if
you did bad, well, you just kindof kind of wipe it and Move on
to the next one.
Yeah, do the best you can,right, and so.
And then I will say this toothere's a lot of different media
outlets out there that kind ofgreat us statistically, and the

(32:17):
one that matters is is what weget from from baseball, and I
know that people don't see thatone, which is fine, but it all
goes back down to this like I'mgonna do the best I can.
I want to do my best I can,being a good communicator on the
field too, which is something Iactually pride myself in more.
How can I communicate with myrelationships on the field?
And when I say relationshipslike I'm not going out having

(32:39):
dinner with baseball players,right, but how can I handle
myself in a professional mannerTo know people?
And that's the other thing.
You build rapport, right.
I mean there's players thatI've had in the minor leagues
that are in the major, yeah, andso I've known those guys.
I mentioned the picture that Iejected and you know what?
We get along great now.
I mean it's we laugh about it,right.
And so you build that rapport,you build that relationship,

(32:59):
that reputation, and it kind ofcomes, it kind of preceded you a
little, you know, and so Ipride myself on that and I do my
best to get to know guys like Iwant to know like where they're
from, where they played collegeball.
If they played college ball,are they married?
They have kids, you know,because that we have something
to talk about.
Yeah, when you work in the bases, especially first, second,
third, you have more opportunityto talk.
Now with the pitch Timer thesedays you don't have as much

(33:21):
opportunity.
You speed that up, you gotta goright.
But yeah, you know accuracy isimportant.
I want to be correct as much aspossible, but I know that
there's gonna be years where I'mgonna be better than I was the
year before or I might not be asgood, but try to minimize those
.
The best you can block out allthe noise, right the social
media noise.
That the best I can right.

Scott (33:42):
And then, yeah, just go out there and every and every
day is a new day, yeah you evermake a call where, as soon as
you made the call, you're likeoh, that was.
Yeah, I was wrong there.
Did you kind of walk it off?

Tripp (33:52):
100%, absolutely.
We umpires.
We call that timing, and whattiming is is the moment you see
the play or you see the pitch.
The timing is that space, thatamount of time between seeing it
and actually calling it, andwhat happens sometimes is your
timing it's too fast.
And you see it, it's like oh,and you make a call, make it
this, oh yeah, and you're like,oh hell, oops.

(34:16):
So I got, I got hired in 15 andit 14 was the first year of
instant replay and I was hiredbecause of openings in the job,
because of replay.
And you know I will say thisabout replay I'm not on Sports
Center on rerun 16 times becauseI missed a call that decided
the game and more replay fixesthat.

(34:36):
And yeah, don't get me wrong,like I sleep better Knowing that
I didn't decide a game andthere are still plays and calls
that we can make that aren'treviewable.
I sleep better knowing that,but it still hurts to get
overturned by replay.
Because I'm human, I want to begreat, I want to be the best,
right, and, like I just told you, you're not always gonna be
yeah, yeah, I was wondering.

Scott (34:57):
If you make that call, you turn around you're like oh
shoot, nobody look at me, nobodylook me in the eyes right now.

Tripp (35:03):
You want to hide?
Yeah, I know.

Scott (35:05):
So we're going into spring training now and you're
getting ready to roll down there.
One of the cool things aboutspring training is that
organizations will bring intheir old players.
They're legends and kind ofhelp out, be on the field.

Tripp (35:16):
Have you ever been just awestruck by a Legend that was
just sitting on the field justhanging out like yeah the first
time that I want to sayawestruck, but just kind of like
I'm in his presence and you'reprobably gonna hate me when I
say this.
Oh no, but I got to work DerekJeter's last year, all right,
okay, I'll give you a jeter.
I'll give you jeter.
The way he handled me into asan individual.

(35:38):
He walked up and you know theyhave our names, they know our
names on the list of the dugout.
He's a hatred.
How's it going?
Congrats on getting here, man.
You know, keep having a greatyear and it's awesome.
Just the way he he was soprofessional, was like okay, he
didn't have to even speak to me,he didn't have to say a word,
but he went out of his way to dothat and I just will never
forget it because my experienceswith dealing with him have are

(35:59):
great, right so, derek Jeter,and know that he's more of the
recent era, right Then.
Then, what you're referring toand I'm trying to think of a guy
offhand but you know, I've metso many people.
I you know what I met.
I met Ozzie Smith at theairport and growing up, you know
, with the Wiz, the wizard,there, I just I was like, you
know, meet and help was supercool because, you know, I look

(36:19):
back at my childhood and he'sthe greatest shortstop that I
ever saw, you know, growing up,as far as just the pure
athleticism and the things hecan do.
Yeah, and you do meet a lot ofpeople in this job, traveling,
but my family, when we wereworking, I opened the season in
Japan in 2019.
It was actually East Rose lastgame, so he announced his
retirement in Japan, his homecountry, which was super cool

(36:41):
Because the Mariners played theA's and I'll never forget and
this is more for my wife, diana,because she grew up in the
Seattle area we were walkingthrough the hotel and she had
one of those like moments whereyou could just she just let up
this giant gasp of air and I'mlike what he goes?
You can even talk, she's pointedand it was, it was Ken Griffey
Jr, oh, you know, and and forher to be able to experience

(37:03):
that growing up here, that wasreally rad.
And then we ended up meetinghim later in that week.
He was at the same restaurantand we've been talking to him
for a while.
And then I worked a series inSeattle and he was there on like
on Griffey Jr Night and heended up coming to the locker
room and he met my men, our boys, and we actually have a really
cool photo with him.
Wow, and the boys.
And so for things like that forme means you know, mean the

(37:24):
most.
It would a nice.
You know he's not playinganymore and I never umpire any
of his games, but what a niceman.

Scott (37:30):
Yeah, one of the things I saw being friends on social
media with your wife is lastyear you worked the all-star
game, which was in Seattle, andI saw some really cool pictures
and your kids made out likebandits.
It was, take your kids to workday.

Tripp (37:45):
Yeah, it was, you know, and you know, as umpires, like
I'm not gonna ask anybody fortheir autograph.
I was Seattle won an autograph.
Neither autograph or whatever.
Yeah, but my kids do, hold them.
I said and I go, look, this isall dependent on how aggressive
you can be and polite.
And I told the boys, I said,look, if you see somebody, you
recognize them, go up and askthem.

(38:06):
You know you're never gonna sayyou'll let yes, unless you ask
them.
And if you do it respectfully.
You know, and they met a ton ofguys.
They, they did.
They actually sat and talked toOzzy Albie's for for a little
while.
That was that was pretty cool.
So, um, yeah, that experiencewas great.
You know the best part of thatyou're working the all-star game
was fun, don't get me wrong.

(38:26):
But being in the stands forhome run, derby, sitting with my
family and, you know, to have abeer, watching the crowd go
crazy when Julio's hitting homeruns over the fence, like that
was really fun, like that was ablast.
You know, yeah, and here's afunny thing is that when we got
in the ballpark and I'm comingin through the concourse, my
wife's like, let me show youaround.
I Know the underbelly of thestadium.

(38:50):
I don't know like which placehas the best broad or Seattle
dog, or which place has craftbeer, like I didn't know
anything.

Scott (38:57):
All right, you have to ask me us to four of my seats.
Where's the restrooms?
That's fantastic when you're inspring training.
Have you ever seen somebody?
And you know, please don't namenames or I don't want to put
you in, you know conflict, buthas there been somebody that you
were watching and you were like, oh my god, this guy has it.

Tripp (39:15):
Absolutely, absolutely 100%.
I mean I can name a few namesin it.
I mean I, when I had FreddieFreeman in double A and he was
miss graves, you just knew hewas gonna be a major league
baseball player.
And not only just the majorleague baseball player, but a
really good one.
You just knew he had thatapproach right, anything that he
still does, and what I'll sayabout this too and this doesn't
have to teach my kids late theygot works hard, I every day to

(39:37):
get better right, and that'ssomething that is very honorable
and admirable for him.
Paul Goldschmidt was anotherguy that I had early on.
You know that still, I mean tothis day, like working nonstop.
I mean he just a couple yearsoff in MVP.
There are guys you know, butyou know what.
There's guys that you wouldnever have thought.
I remember seeing Jose Ramirezand the Dominican Winter League

(40:02):
and then all of a sudden, thisguy is like you know he's a star
, so it's, it goes both ways, itreally does because you almost
feel just as good for them whenyou see them and they're great
and they still stay great andthey're kind.
But also the guys thatsurprised you too, you feel just
as good for them because it'slike, oh wow, it just goes to
show, man, like you got so manygreat athletes working so hard,
it is so hard, it's so hard tobecome a major league baseball

(40:24):
player.
I mean it's extremely difficultto become an umpire, I think I
think less than 1% of the guysthat go to umpire school
actually make it to the majorleagues as an umpire.
But I mean, I was looking at itup not too long ago there's
only been like 10,000 majorleague baseball players ever.
Oh wow, like in the history ofthe game.

Scott (40:41):
It's a crazy set yeah 100 and whatever years, 100 plus
years that's insane.
So, as a Red Sox fan, I noticedthis statistic.
You ejected Aaron bleeping boon.

Tripp (40:52):
I can tell you that anytime there's an ejection,
it's always called situationalejections, meaning like a call
led to excitement, which thecall was either correct or
incorrect.
And you know what.
The ejections are just part ofthe game and it all goes back to
the way you handle people,right.
And when I look at the video ofany ejection and that one I've
looked at too right, I felt likeI handled myself in a

(41:14):
professional, respectable mannerand you know what, in that
situation, Aaron did the samething, right.
And when you have those, mostof the time they're defending
their player, boston.
And that ballpark is probablystill one of my favorite
ballparks, even though it's soquirky.
It's got such a strange layout.
You know the way.
It's just the different shape.
And actually I'm going to jumpin and say this when you think

(41:36):
about sports stadiums, baseballfields are probably the coolest
because they're all different,whereas like an NBA arena or
hockey or even, you know, soccerand NFL, like they're all kind
of the field dimensions, mostall the same.
Yeah, in baseball they're alldifferent, but that's something
about working games there.
Anyways, you get a ladder onthe monster, for goodness sake.

(41:57):
I mean, like, I mean there's, Imean, but yeah, I mean, I
actually remember, like if I seethe list of all them, I can't
tell you how many times I'veejected somebody and ejections
are only literally 1% of our job, because my job actually is to
try not to eject someone, Justtry to keep them in the game,
especially players, right?

(42:17):
If I know two people are mad atme.
Like, the player's job is toplay, and I'm going to.
If the manager does it theright way and he comes out and
gets ejected, he's keeping hisplayer in the game right and
that's what I want him to do too, which because people aren't
paying to see me.
Matter of fact, we just wementioned it in the very
beginning of this podcast Like Ikind of want to be invisible,
Like I don't, and that's anotherreason why it was I was upset

(42:38):
after the game that I actuallyhad an ejection because I wanted
to be invisible in that game.
I didn't want anybody to evenknow I was there.

Scott (42:44):
How does the pay structure work on those games?
Do you hope for longer seriesor do you like all right, if we
could get a sweep?

Tripp (42:50):
that'd be great.
That's a great question,because we get paid salary like
a school teacher right Once amonth.
Postseason's a little different.
There's, you know, there'sother things because you got to
get rewarded post seasons foryour body of work throughout the
year, but also kind of like acumulative amount of body of
body of work for the last fewyears to kind of get to
different assignments, like theWorld Series that I got so

(43:11):
fortunate to work in 2022.
Those few years kind of led upto that and that specific
particular season.
So, yeah, you do, you do getpaid extra for those things.
And so you know, working a game,that's a sweep or not a sweep,
there's no difference.
I mean, honestly, when you'redoing your job like you don't,
you can't think about thosethings.
You just got to think about thenext call.
Because, if you like thinkingyourself, I just made a great

(43:34):
call.
All of a sudden, boom, there'sanother call right in front of
you, and so when you go intothose games like this past year
I worked game six behind theplate in the National League
Championship Series and I had togo into that series me mentally
going it's going to go at leastsix games I couldn't like, hey,
it's going to be a sweep.
And then all of a sudden, boom,I got to work to play game six.
Like I can't think that way.
Right, I have to prepare myself.
Yeah, and you know you didn'task this, but I'll say it.

(43:56):
We fly commercial and so wedon't fly private charters, team
charters, like the players do,and so a lot of times you have a
night game on getaway day, andyou know, and you got to catch a
six am flight the very next dayto go to the next city to work
a game that night.
So think about being wired andthen having to try to sleep
three or four hours and then getup and go to the airport and do
it again.
It's difficult, it can beexhausting.

Scott (44:18):
Oh, God, I bet you you got some serious sky miles, huh.

Tripp (44:21):
Yeah, I've flown a lot, no doubt a lot of hotel.
So you mentioned working thoughthat Houston Phillies game 2022
World Series game whereHouston's pitchers collectively
through the no hitter so thequestion people always ask when
they, when you work in no hitteror part of a game like that,
they all say when did you know,you know, like when did you know
there were no right?

(44:41):
I'm doing the third inning and Iremember my mind going, ok,
bryce Harper walked in the first, so the perfect game's gone.
And you know, and most nervewracking game I've ever worked,
and the main reason was it wasthe World Series number one.
Yeah, right, didn't want toscrew up Number two, I didn't
want to affect the no hitter oneway or the other.

(45:03):
Right, I didn't want to be apart of the reason why there was
no hitter, I didn't want to bea part of the reason why there
wasn't.
So I was just like, ok, justslow down, like timing, go back
to that timing thing, like justkeep everything as slow as
possible, stay within yourself.
I remember coming off the fieldkind of in disbelief.
We go out to our tunnel, kind ofoff to the third base side of

(45:25):
home plate there at CitizensBank, and we go up the tunnel
there and all of the media waslined up in the tunnel and they
had a ton of like Philadelphiamedia and of course the Phillies
had just lost and it was stonecold quiet because they just got
no hit.
And it was such an eeriefeeling because I had just

(45:45):
worked my first ever home plategame in the World Series, and I
just wanted to scream andcelebrate, just be like it was
major accomplishment.
My family was there.
Not only was it my first gamebehind home plate in the World
Series, it was also a no hitter.
I didn't know that it was onlythe second no hitter.
I mean, the other one was aperfect game.
So there's no way to reallycompare it the two because what

(46:08):
Don Drysdale does, it'sdifferent than combined.
It's still amazing, amazingthat it happened so crazy.
Yeah, everybody in the tunnelwas dead quiet so we had to like
.
When we got in the locker room.
That's when all the umpireswere like, oh my crewmates go,
are you kidding me?
Because, look, I didn't pitchthe ball, I didn't throw the
ball first, I didn't hit theball, I didn't do any of that

(46:28):
stuff Right, but I was a witnessof one of the coolest events,
if not the coolest event of the2022 World Series, one of the
coolest events in the WorldSeries, and I was just fortunate
enough to be the guy wearingthe mask behind the plate.

Scott (46:40):
It's so crazy.
When I was doing the researchon it I was looking at it all up
.
I didn't realize that that wasonly the second one as well.
And an interesting connectionto this was one of the umpires
that was in the 1956 Don Larsongame.
His name is Hank Soar.
He is from Pawtucket, rhodeIsland, my hometown.
His son was the private schoolhead coach for every single

(47:03):
sport and was an amazing guy,has fields named after him.
We played against him when Iwas in high school and it was
just kind of that is cool.
I think I'm really reaching forit.
That's what I'm doing.

Tripp (47:13):
No, no, I don't think so at all.
I think things like that areinteresting.

Scott (47:17):
It was a really, really cool thing to see.
I mean, you're going to be inhundreds more crazy games too.
I mean the things that you'regoing to see.
It's got to be so exciting togo to the field every single day
.
I'm so jealous Last year.

Tripp (47:30):
I worked first base for Michael Lorenzen's no hitter and
Philly, and I draw a blank onwho the visiting team was.
It might have been theNationals.
I didn't work home plate but Iwas such an honor for us as
umpires to be a home plateumpire for one of those games
and it kind of becomes like astat that guys keep up with like
, oh, you've worked a couple nohitters, you know whatever.
But I was so thrilled for theguy that got to work, my

(47:51):
crewmate.
They got to work home platebecause it was his first one.
It was a complete game and hethrew a ton of pitches and it
was just.
I was just happy for him.
When we walk off the field Ihad to make the joke Because
this was the season later fromthe World Series and I had to
make the joke.
Man, I haven't seen a no hitterhere since, oh, the last World
Series, because it was the sameballpark in the outfield.

(48:13):
I don't know.

Scott (48:15):
Who are some of the funnier players giving you some
grief and joking around with youout there?

Tripp (48:20):
Well, you know what offhand I can't think of guys.
But I'll say this I'm notreally a big jokester on the
field, Like I do have laughs,right, no, you're wrong, but I
always feel like the guys thattalk the most are guys that have
more than two or three, fouryears in the major leagues,
Because the guys that are alittle more comfortable being
there, but also they knowthey're going to be there and so

(48:40):
they're a little more, you knowa little more.
They talk more, right, the guysthat kind of talk to you more.
And there's tons of guys I'vethought of some names, I don't
think I want to name them, butyeah, they're, yeah, no, no, no,
I feel like what you've beenaround a little while, guys that
are more comfortable not onlytalking to you because you've
been around a little while, butjust talking in general, right?

Scott (48:59):
So you mentioned your boys were playing some ball.
Did they feel any addedpressure?
Because their dad knows everysingle rule possible in this
game that they're playing.
You know what's funny.

Tripp (49:09):
I don't think they've really thought about it.
I don't think they could careless because they've been around
it so much.
Now I mean, I have told themand tried to tell them to.
Well, first and foremost I'llsay this Actually, I'm obviously
not a fan of any team or player.
It's all gone for me.
I'm a baseball fan and I loveit that they get to be fans of

(49:35):
teams, fans of players and keepup with it.
And I don't ever tell themstories about things unless they
ask.
And nothing negative, obviously, because I don't want to skew
their perception of things.
But for them to be able to befans is important for me and to
know the game.
But when they think about atleast the way I see it, when

(49:57):
they think about me as an umpire, I think they just say, yeah,
my dad has a job on TV umpire'sgames.
It's not really that big of adeal to them.
I don't know.
But then again, I don't knowhow it would take it either.
I mean, they've been in theWorld Series, they've been to
All-Star Game, they've been totons of games.
It's not an old hat.
They love it, right, they lovegoing.
But I don't even know.

(50:17):
I don't know what they talkabout with their friends.
Like, yeah, my dad's a majoringumpire.
He goes to a job where he getsyelled at and booed on a regular
basis.
Hundreds of thousands of peoplein the world don't like him and
they don't even know him.

Scott (50:30):
Their best friend's dad is a mailman.
Nobody booze him all day long,I know I know, I don't come to
your job and yell at you.
Yeah right.
Are you a big fan of othersports?
Do you watch other sports on TV?

Tripp (50:43):
Yeah, definitely, we're Seattle Seahawks fans, and some
people always go wait a second.
You're from Kentucky.
Well, let me put this inperspective.
When I was growing up okay, theRams of St Louis were in LA the
first time.

Scott (50:56):
Yeah.

Tripp (50:56):
The Tennessee Titans were in Houston as the Oilers Yep
Right, cincinnati wasn't reallythat good of a team at the time.
Kansas City is too far, atlantais too far I mean, at least for
me to be a and so I didn'treally have an NFL team.
College basketball is probablymy favorite sport now,
especially since Kentucky.
Kentucky's always beencompetitive and good.

(51:19):
Oh yeah, every team, everysquad, has their ups and downs
and years are great and yearsare not whatever, but college
basketball is definitely myfavorite.
And then the NFL.
And then the Kraken has justcome in a couple of three years
ago into Seattle and we actuallywent down to the Winter Classic
, which was the outdoor game atT-Mobile, which was super cool,
yeah, super great experience.

(51:40):
That's awesome.
And yeah, I've been to quite afew Seahawks games.
We're sports fans.
You know our boys.
They play baseball andbasketball and they've done flag
football in the past and my dadwas a collegiate golfer and so
I grew up in a house where golfkind of was king for a long time
.
We grew up on golf course and,yeah, we just kind of do it all.
And since I've lived inWashington now almost 12 years,

(52:04):
especially with my wife's family, we've kind of become more
outdoorsmen and hunting andfishing and hiking and just
being outside.
We live on a lake and we lovewater sports, love snow sports.
We just got back from a niceski trip and, yeah, just love
doing everything, doingeverything we can.
But yeah, college basketball ismy favorite.
I mean college basketball, yeah.
I mean it's a nice Wednesday.

(52:26):
Kentucky plays LSU.

Scott (52:27):
Do you ever feel for the officials of those sports?

Tripp (52:30):
Yeah, you know what Sports officials is?
A big fraternity it is.
It's like a big community and Iknow tons of guys in the NBA,
nfl, nhl.
We all have a very similar job.
It's interesting how our seasonbegins and the NBA season ends
kind of right about the sametime.

(52:50):
I probably know more NBAofficials than I do other sports
.
But yeah, I mean, if I'm intown and you know, let's say I'm
in, you know in Chicago and theBlackhawks are playing, you
know, I'll try, I'll find outwho's officiating the game.
I'll either go or meet up withthem afterward.
You know if I have a day off orwhatever.
And then you know, depending onthe type of year it is like
this year at spring trainingwill be in.
I'll be in Arizona, for you knowa few weeks and the Suns are in

(53:13):
town, I'll find out who theofficials are and we'll probably
meet up and, you know, talkabout the game or might even go
to the game, you know, and maybethey'll want to go to a spring
training game.
So it's kind of fun doing itthat way.

Scott (53:23):
Yeah Well, tripp, this has been fantastic.
I'm so happy that you were ableto do this.
I'm honored.
This has been really cool,eye-opening, definitely
eye-opening, and I hope thelisteners feel the same way
because, you know again, majorLeague umpire is something that
people don't really think about.
It's not something you justwonder how that guy got his job.
You just watch your game andit's really cool to hear kind of

(53:44):
all that backstory and to hearyour successes over the years.
So thank you again.

Tripp (53:50):
Scott, it was a pleasure, man.
I enjoyed it.
It's not hard to talk aboutyourself, that's for sure.

Scott (53:57):
I'm an old child, so I have no problem with it either.
All right, cool.
Thank you so much again.
Best of luck with the season,spring training, regular season
and everything else.
We'll definitely be rooting foryou and watching for you and
hopefully get to Fenway a coupleof times this coming year.
Definitely have a great season.

Tripp (54:15):
I appreciate that.
Yeah, I love going to Boston.
It's just a great town.

Scott (54:22):
It's only my 14th episode .
I'll catch on Danna's printeris going off.

Tripp (54:28):
Sorry, if I can hear it, Danna, what are you doing?
Yeah, there we go.