WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Editors' note: The video above is from May 4, 2024
A Pennsylvania College of Technology employee has a once-in-a-lifetime vacation planned for summer: umpiring at the Little League Baseball World Series.
Zachary Gump is the senior program manager of commercial buildings for the college’s Clean Energy Center and is one of 16 individuals from around the globe chosen to umpire for the first time at the 77th edition of the series, considered the world’s premier youth sporting event.
“I definitely got a little choked up when I opened the letter,” Gump said regarding Little League’s mid-February notification of his selection. “After 18 years (of umpiring), it’s exciting and emotional at the same time.”
Gump’s wife, Caitlin, predicted the good news months earlier after discovering she was pregnant and due to give birth to the couple’s third child a few days before the tournament.
“She was like, ‘You’re going to get the World Series this year because that’s how things roll,’” Gump recalled.
How will he juggle the two milestones? “We’ll figure it out. We’ll make it work,” Gump said with a smile. “You’ve got to rely on family and friends.”
Gump, who resides in Enola and works out of the Clean Energy Center’s training facility in Harrisburg, umpired his first of about 1,200 games at age 16, inspired by his cousin, Ryan Hartman, who attended a professional umpiring school. Little League and Teener Baseball for young teens provided his first opportunities, the latter of which was a paying gig.
“We were getting, I think, $35 for a Teener-level game. For somebody in high school, that’s a pretty good payday. It was definitely a nice summer job,” he said.
Eventually, Gump became certified to umpire high school games before earning his NCAA credentials to ump at the collegiate level.
“Once you move up in umpiring certain levels of baseball, it’s hard sometimes to go back a level,” he explained. “I found that especially at the college and high school levels. The Division II kids are top-tier athletes, and then you go back to a high school game, and it’s like, ‘Wow, this is extremely slow.’”
But returning to his roots as a volunteer Little League umpire is always a pleasure.
“It’s so much more laid back,” he said. “The kids, for the most part, are out there to have fun and learn how to play the game. It’s rewarding just to be around the younger kids and watch them develop and have fun.”
More than 6,500 teams vie for one of 20 spots to play at the Little League Baseball World Series for 10-to-12-year-olds in South Williamsport. Umpiring in the series is nearly as exclusive. Little League estimates that just 700 individuals have served as World Series umpires in Williamsport during the 76-year history of the tournament.
“It’s the gold standard of amateur umpiring. Everybody wants to achieve that,” Gump stated.
A member of the Cumberland Valley Association of Baseball Umpires, Gump and his friend, Jared Grissinger, of Palmyra, will be the fifth and sixth individuals from that chapter to ump at the Little League Baseball World Series.
“It’s a really cool experience to share it with somebody that you’ve known for a long time,” Gump said.
The surroundings also will be familiar. Gump has attended several Little League Baseball World Series tournaments as a fan and participated in a weeklong umpire clinic at the Little League International Complex in 2015.
“Besides the hard work that was put into refining mechanics and positioning, it was a great opportunity to meet fellow umpires from all over the world,” Gump said of the clinic. “It was definitely a stepping stone for my progression in the tournaments.”
Since that experience, his umpire assignments have included the Little League Baseball East Region tournaments, which send its winners to the Little League Baseball World Series, and the Senior League Baseball World Series for ages 13 to 16. His quality work at those tourneys put him into consideration to ump at the Little League Baseball World Series.
“Rely on your training and your experience. Get in proper positioning and use your eyes, whether you’re behind the plate or on the bases,” Gump said in explaining his approach. “I’m definitely a plate guy. When you’re behind the plate, you get a lot more interaction with the players and coaches. After a few games, everyone is learning from each other.”
At the World Series, Gump is guaranteed at least one game behind the plate and at each of the three bases. After four games, assignments will be based on performance.
“I’m going to go there, do my thing, and whatever shakes out, shakes out. I want to enjoy my time while I’m there,” he said. “We’re going to have 16 umpires that come from all over the world, and I think that’s a really cool time to build relationships with those individuals.”
The series features 38 nationally televised games over a dozen days. Little League estimates the 2023 event drew 393,710 fans, and according to Nielsen, the tournament averaged 1,081,000 viewers on ESPN platforms. That’s a lot of armchair umpires.
“After a few years, you begin to block out background noise,” Gump said. “As we call it, ‘Get rid of your rabbit ears.’ You can sit in the stands and debate a call for five minutes. But when you have to make the decision in a split second, that’s what makes umpiring fun. You’ve got to go with your gut.”
In 2008, Little League International became the first baseball organization to use video replay to review calls on the field. Some umpires might chafe over the possibility of replay reversing their decisions. Gump views replay review as a welcomed backup.
“We’re not perfect. Major league umpires aren’t perfect,” he said. “There’s a sense of comfort knowing that Little League has the ability to go to replay, and on the grand scale, we’re going to get it right at the end of the day.”