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Episode 63: Podcast creator Jason Becker will change your mind about umpires

Check It Out!

Release Date: 09/25/2020

Episode 63: Podcast creator Jason Becker will change your mind about umpires show art Episode 63: Podcast creator Jason Becker will change your mind about umpires

Check It Out!

Let’s meet the baseball nut who sticks up for the guys behind the plate that every baseball fan loves to hate.  Yes, we’re talking about umpires.  In this episode of the Check It Out! podcast, host Ken Harvey talks to his friend Jason Becker, creator of the .  “In my book, he’s a genius, and he’s producing a fascinating podcast for the officials behind America’s favorite round-ball sport. That’s baseball, and those are umpires,” Harvey said in introducing Becker. “Fans and players often...

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Episode 62: Professor's academic research on racial strife leads to his first novel show art Episode 62: Professor's academic research on racial strife leads to his first novel

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In Episode 62 of Sno-Isle Libraries Check It Out podcast, co-hosts Ken Harvey and Tricia Lee talk to local author Stewart Tolnay and learn how he has used his study of American racial history to create interesting fiction and nonfiction.  Tolnay is a Ph.D. professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Washington. His first fiction novel, “,” features a Black Vietnam War veteran, his white girlfriend and the struggles they face as an interracial couple in Everett in 1969.  Tolnay is also the author or co-author of...

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Rodney Clark helps deliver the future.  As the vice president of the Worldwide Internet of Things and Mixed Reality Team, Clark and his crew work with more than 8,000 partners and clients to connect billions of everyday devices to the cloud.  Sensors on stop lights, cash registers, automobiles, home appliances, exercise monitors, video doorbells. They all generate information and data that allows organizations to take action on that data and insights.  “It’s a wave, it’s a reality,” Clark said.  It’s no longer “the future.”  “The job that I have and...

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Episode 58: Claudia Samano-Losada loves libraries as much as she loves her communities show art Episode 58: Claudia Samano-Losada loves libraries as much as she loves her communities

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Claudia Samano Losado has many talents.  Early-childhood educator. World traveler. Life coach. Recreation-center owner. Dance-movement instructor.  But maybe most importantly, Losado is a fervent Oak Harbor Library supporter.  “I think I’m very passionate about a lot of things, and one of my passions is to share with others and to take and give in the same way,” said Losado, a member of the library’s board. “Since I have had so much from the library I’ve wanted to give back to, and this is a very good way to give back, but not just that, to know more about the...

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Episode 57: For food critic Nancy Leson, deadlines got in the way of a good time show art Episode 57: For food critic Nancy Leson, deadlines got in the way of a good time

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Chapter 1: Meet the writer who’s not fond of writing  Nancy Leson loves books, she loves libraries, she loves to talk and she loves food.  That makes the Edmonds resident an ideal guest for Sno-Isle Libraries .  Libraries figured large in Leson’s childhood in Philadelphia. Her family had little disposable income, so off to the library they went to borrow books and glean information from encyclopedias. These days, Leson says, the Friends of the Edmonds Library book sale is her favorite book event every year.  Books and learning followed Leson into adulthood.  ...

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Episode 56: A Rich Frishman picture isn't just a thousand words. It's a story unto itself. show art Episode 56: A Rich Frishman picture isn't just a thousand words. It's a story unto itself.

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, some of photographs could be novels.  Frishman was a news photographer for The Daily Herald in Everett and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize before he left to pursue freelance work.  He knows how to tell a story with a photograph, and he still sees and tells the stories of America through his camera lens.  Frishman has criss-crossed the country to chronicle its beauty and everyday life in his collections, and , and the guarded secrets in   The difference between Frishman and the rest of us who think we take good pictures is how...

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Let’s meet the baseball nut who sticks up for the guys behind the plate that every baseball fan loves to hate. 

Yes, we’re talking about umpires. 

In this episode of the Check It Out! podcast, host Ken Harvey talks to his friend Jason Becker, creator of the Umpire Inspire podcast. 

“In my book, he’s a genius, and he’s producing a fascinating podcast for the officials behind America’s favorite round-ball sport. That’s baseball, and those are umpires,” Harvey said in introducing Becker. “Fans and players often disagree with what the umpire says and what the umpire does, which can make it a lonely job even when there are two of them on the field.” 

Becker humanizes umpires. He explains why they love what they doeven when they don’t get paid to call balls and strikes and outs. They’re inspired to do it for the love of the game 

Becker’s podcast invites listeners to come in and hear a captivating conversation with an enthusiastic umpire who may be from anywhere on the planet. 

Baseball isnt just American, it’s global, and these umpires consider their jobs to be a lot more than just calling balls and strikes,” Harvey said. 

Becker said baseball has been his passion “for practically my entire life.” He started playing when he was 5 and continues to play today in a senior adult league. 

“I've played since I was a kid, like a lot of people. Coached my boy all the way through Little League, and my girls for a couple years while they were playing,” he said. 

About eight years ago, he grabbed a mask and tried umpiring. 

“It was a need that I felt I could do some good with in our local Little League here in Mukilteo, and it turned out to be a really great fit,” Becker said. “Being out on a baseball field makes more sense to me than being just about anywhere else, so I've really enjoyed umpiring. 

He takes it seriously. He umpires Little League baseball and softball around Washington and umpires high school baseball in Snohomish County.  

It took Becker a couple of years of umpiring before he could see the connection between his love for umpiring and his love for fascinating podcasts. 

“Theres a lot of folks out there for whom umpiring means an awful lot, and they put a lot of their heart and their time into it, and its often not paid. Little League is an all-volunteer organization, for instance,” Becker said. “I found that umpires were generally just a really great group of people to hang around with because of their giving spirit, their commitment to public service... how umpiring is a public service for many of the friends that I have in the umpiring community.” 

That’s when the “two worlds” came together in Becker’s mind, and the idea of the Umpire Inspire podcast was born. 

In late 2019, he decided it was time to make it happen. 

Nows the time, Becker said. “Were going to take a swing. Hopefully, Ill connect. Maybe Ill miss, but its going to be an interesting journey, and it has definitely been such a joy and such a privilege, as I have completed this first go-around, and Im just on the doorstep of getting my own season two underway, so its been great. 

The first episode of Umpire Inspire debuted on March 17, 2020, with minor league umpire Bobby Tassone, who works the Carolina League. Interviews with seven more umpires followed. 

Season 2 started on Aug. 11. Among Becker’s interviews so far are umpires who work in Venezuela and the Czech Republic, and two women who call the game. 

Some are professionals. Some are amateurs. They come in all shapes and sizes and range in age from 16 to 76. All have interesting stories to share. 

“You’ve had an opportunity to have some conversations with some remarkable guests already,” Harvey said 

Harvey asked Becker when he, as a young player, first became aware of an umpire on the field. 

I dont think anybody has asked me that question before,” Becker said. “I’m not sure I do remember, if Im being honest. As a kid, youre out there, youre doing what you do with your buddies, and youre playing the game and youre having fun. I can’t recall a time where I do remember the umpire, but it does put a point on what the best volunteer umpires, or paid umpires... one of their best characteristics is theyre doing it for the game. 

Umpires don’t care who wins or loses the game, Becker explained.  

We are what we call the third team on the field,” he saidIn every baseball and softball game, there are three teams: theres the home team, theres the away team, and theres the third team, the umpires, who, just like the players, are out there giving their best effort and trying to make every call correct. They want to do their best job, just like the players do. And maybe it makes a point that I don’t remember my umpires when I was a kid, but it doesnt change the fact that they were out there giving their time away from their families, away from their work lives, so that I could play ball. Without an umpire, its just a scrimmage. 

Harvey recalled his time playing baseball as a youngster and coming to terms with the stranger behind the plate. 

I think that probably any of us who have stood on the field and gone to the home plate and swung, at some point in our lifetime, whatever age, we start to recognize that an umpire has a significant amount of power, but also a significant amount of knowledge about the game, and maybe even more than my coach does,” Harvey said 

He said he appreciated Becker’s ability to bring out the humanity and service that umpires bring to the sport and wanted to know, “At what point did you start to really recognize that about these umpires? 

It took Becker a while behind the plate to see the other stories in his umpire colleagues. 

My show is not about rules or field mechanics or instruction,” he saidThere are a thousand great websites and podcasts and sources that do a much better job with things like that than I do. My show is about the stories and the journeys and the heart of why we umpires do what we do. There is nothing an umpire loves more than to just get together with his or her partner after a game, share their experiences and their wins and their losses, and what theyve learned; swap stories; tell tall tales; that is something that is common with every umpire at every level, all around the world. 

Harvey asked for an example.  

One of my favorite guests during this season one was Dale Scott,” Becker saidHe was a Major League umpire for 30-plus years until his retirement in 2017. There was so much good stuff there. He did point out ... if you went to your job every day not having any idea of what was going to happen that day, it might make you get up out of bed in the morning a little differently. It could light a little bit of a fire. Thats what its like every game for a baseball or a softball umpire. Some things are going to be consistent, but just about every game you see something and have to rule on something that you may never have seen before. 

That got Becker to tell the story of his own personal umpire hero. 

One thing thatreally interesting, Ken, is that a lot of the stories start exactly the same,” Becker said. “Ive had the opportunity to speak with everyone from teenage youth umpires here in Snohomish County, all the way up to Major League Baseball umpires, and oftentimes, they have very similar stories. In fact, I was just re-listening the other day to one of my episodes, a conversation I had with a Major League umpire ... really, an umpire hero of mine named Tripp Gibson, who is one of many Major League umpires that live here in the Puget Sound area.  

He was telling us about his first game. Coach gets a little fired up, and in his very first game ever as an umpire, he has to toss the coach. The way Tripp described it, he says, Yeah, so the gentleman, Pat, who brought me out, he met me after the game and gave me my check for 25 bucks and said, Well, good try, kid. Tripp said, Good try? That was awesome! Im coming back tomorrow!’”  

While most players get to take a field break every half inning and between plate appearances, umpires never leave the field. 

I would love for listeners of this show to maybe start thinking about umpires in a little different way,” Becker saidThe home team and the away team, they get to go in the dugout and relax every half inning. But the umpires stay out there every pitch, every inning, every game, and for the Major League guys, six to eight months in a row. 

Thats got to be really tough,” Harvey saidEspecially when the weather conditions arent prime for something like that. 

Despite the difficult working conditions and tension that comes from making calls, umpires just want to do their job right and enhance the game, Becker said. 

One thing that umpires like to hang their hat on is, if they can get through a game and nobody notices that they were even there, they had a pretty good game, right?” he said. Because its not our job to get in the way. Its not our game. We are there to serve. We’re there to go to work and enable and enhance that game that were working at, and if we get that done, its been a pretty good day at the office. 

Part 2: Self-Help Shelf  

Self-Help Shelf logoThis is Sarri Gilman with the Self-Help Shelf for Sno-Isle Libraries. The book I have for you today is Eight Dates, by Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman. Oh yes, theyre married, and they once ran the famous Love Lab where they researched couples and communication. Together, they now have the Gottman Institute in Seattle, where they share years of research on how to make marriage work and what predicts divorce.  

During COVID-19, not too many couples were having romantic dates, and your closeness and intimacy may feel like it was just lost in the pandemic, or maybe it was lost even before that. If youre married or dating, Eight Dates is for you. The book gives you a guide on things to think about before each date, and you literally make a plan to go on eight dates together, and each date, youre given a different topic with a whole different set of questions to ask each other. You practice listening and learning about each other, and even if youve been together for decades, I think youre going to get a lot out of this book, especially if you feel like your relationship needs attention and you wish you were closer.  

Since we're in a pandemic, youre going to need to bring a little bit of creativity to your dates with your partner. Maybe its a beach picnic or a date at home; it really doesn't matter where you are, because each date is a full discussion on a topic picked by the Gottmans, with a guide to support you.  

I do recommend that you each read a copy of the book so that you have some of the background material to think about before your date, or you could even read out loud to each other to prepare for your date.  

One of my favorite lines from the book is this one: The goal of conflict is not to win or convince the other person that youre right. In creating compromise, we have to understand each others core needs on the issues we are discussing, as well as each others areas of flexibility. The goal is not to become identical; the goal is to understand each other. 

This book is also going to help you get a better understanding of each other's core needs. By going on the eight dates, you will have a much deeper understanding of each other, and youre going to get tips that you can practice for each date, and my hope is that you just continue going on these deeper dive discussion dates in the future.  

“’Eight Dates, by Doctors John and Julie Gottman, is available digitally from the Sno-Isle Libraries. Take good care of you, and remember, some books are almost as good as therapy.