page_title: Minor League Baseball
section_title: Umpires
hierarchical_section_title: Minor League Baseball / Umpires
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Major League third basemen Morgan Ensberg (left) and Edgardo Alfonzo (right), now managers of the Tri-City ValleyCats and Brooklyn Cyclones respectively, meet with the umpires prior to the ValleyCats game against the Cyclones at MCU Park on August 3, 2017.
context_page_description: Minor League Baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and help prepare players to join major league teams. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses. Most are members of the umbrella organization formally known as National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, which operates under the Commissioner of Baseball within the scope of organized baseball. Several leagues, known as independent baseball leagues, have no official links to Major League Baseball.
  Except for the Mexican League, teams in the organized minor leagues are generally independently owned and operated but are directly affiliated with one major league team through a standardized Player Development Contract. These leagues also go by the nicknames the "farm system", "farm clubs", or "farm teams" because of a joke passed around by major league players in the 1930s when St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey formalized the system, and teams in small towns were "growing players down on the farm like corn".
context_section_description: Umpires at the minor league level are overseen by Minor League Baseball Umpire Development, which is responsible for the training, evaluation, and recommendation for promotion and retention or release of the umpires.
  The umpires are evaluated eight times a season by the staff of the MiLB Umpire Development, and receive a ranking at mid-season and the end of each year. Based on performance during the year, an umpire may advance in classification when a position opens in-season or during the off-season. Umpire Development holds an annual evaluation course every year in March to evaluate rookie umpires. Participants are normally the best students from the two professional umpire schools (one owned and operated by the same entity). The top students who pass the evaluation course are recommended for the first openings in the Rookie and short season leagues.
  Any student who wants to work as an umpire must attend a professional umpire training school. The MiLB recognizes two schools for training prospective professional umpires, the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School and Minor League Baseball Umpire Training Academy, both located in Florida.  The Minor League Baseball Umpire Training Academy is owned and operated by Minor League Baseball Umpire Development (MiLBUD), while Wendelstedt is independently owned by MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. The classes for each school are held for five weeks in January and February. The instructors at these schools are former or present major or minor league umpires. Simply attending one of these schools, however, does not guarantee that the candidate will also be recommended either to the evaluation course or to the openings in the Rookie or short season leagues. Generally, less than 20% of umpire school students move on to the Rookie Evaluation Course.
  Before the umpire development program was created, the Minor League presidents would recruit umpires directly from the schools. Umpires were then "sold" from league to league by word of mouth through the various league presidents.
  The umpire development program first started in 1964, when it was decided that a method of recruitment, training and development for umpires of both major and minor leagues was needed. The Umpire Development Program was founded at Baseball's 1964 Winter Meetings in Houston, and it began operating the next year. The program aimed to recruit more athletic, energetic and dedicated individuals who would also have high morals and integrity standards. In 1968, it was decided that the program needed its own umpire training course which would be held each year. The first "Umpire Specialization Course" was held in St. Petersburg, Florida the following year.
  Presently, the candidates for a job in professional umpiring must meet several requirements in order to be considered. An applicant must have a high school diploma or a G.E.D., must be athletic, and also must have 20/20 vision, though they are permitted to wear glasses or contact lenses. They must also have good communication skills, good reflexes and coordination, and must have trained at one of the two professional umpire schools.
  On June 21, 2016, the Gulf Coast League hired Jen Pawol, the first female umpire in Minor League Baseball since 2007.
caption: Umpires and managers prior to a New York–Penn League game in August 2017
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