An Umpire's Journal: Partners

Every Monday for a few months I am going to use this blog for "An Umpire's Journal," giving some personal reflections on umpiring. Every weekend from late March through mid-July Steven and I will be working various tournaments. We will ump 6 to 10 games on a weekend, and I'm sure I will have some fun and funny stories to recount.
       Steven and I work as partners umpiring a fair amount. In almost all of our games we work the two-man system, meaning there are only 2 umpires on the field to make all the calls.
       It is a huge advantage to work most games with the same partner. You know each other's rhythms and tendencies, you can cover for each other. And when a player or coach is griping about something you can stand together between innings and remind each other you are not crazy!
       To be honest, Steven probably is stronger behind the plate calling balls and strikes than I am. That's partly because he was a catcher for years and is used to batters swinging the bat in front of his face. I see the field and can interact with coaches more easily when I am working the bases, which Steven would prefer me to do. He's more "get to business" of umpiring a game, I will listen to the chirping of coaches and players more and banter with them.
       Two weeks ago Steven and I umped the championship game for a 12-year-old majors tournament (the photo here is from that), next weekend we will do a tourney for south Metro Denver.