The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER attending the event as a solo representative from the Bahamas in 2020, Martin ‘Pork’ Burrows decided to return to the Baseball College Recruitment Certification Clinic with four more umpires.

The clinic, hosted by the CBUAO, is being held from March 8-14 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“I need these guys to get their certification because when we host the international tournament in July, they will be certified,” said Burrows, who currently serves as the highest ranked baseball umpire in the country.

Burrows was referring to the Babe Ruth 2022 Caribbean Championships, hosted by Greg Burrows, in Nassau from July 7-11.

While the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture is preparing the fields at the Baillou Hills Sports Complex for the joint 12-and-under and 16-and-under tournament, Burrows said he wants to make sure that there are Bahamian umpires certified to officiate the games.

Joining Burrows at this year’s clinic are Andrew Burrows and Ainsworth Beckford from New Providence and Wayne Basden and Oscar Greene from Grand Bahama. Having gotten his certification from the clinic two years ago, Burrows is hoping that the other four will attain their own.

The four candidates are all eagerly looking forward to their participation in the clinic. “The clinic is certainly a change of bad habits, or just gives us corrective measures for things we have been doing incorrectly and it is beneficial for us as we move forward in the sport of baseball as umpires,” said Beckford, a member of the Bahamas Independent Secondary Schools Sports Association and a coach/umpire in the Junior Baseball League of Nassau.

Ainsworth said the clinic has been very intense.

“The instructors are hard on you and any mistake that they see and they are not interested in it, they will correct you and let you know that you need to position yourself properly and you need to keep your head steady,” Ainsworth said. “It’s a clinic that changes our perspective on how to call the game.”

Greene, a former track and field star who has now ventured into coaching and umpiring baseball in Grand Bahama, said he’s excited to be able to hone his skills at another level so that he can provide his service to the participants in the sport.

“I look forward to using all of the techniques that we are learning over here because we’re learning some things at a much higher level,” he said. “We’re learning some advanced stuff, so we’re very excited to learn these things.

“So I’m very excited to bring these things back to Freeport and back to the Bahamas when we return.”

Basden, also an umpire out of Grand Bahama, said he’s truly appreciative of the invitation from Burrows to join him and the others in attending the clinic this year.

“What I’ve learned so far is that the things we have been doing, they are taking it to another level,” Basden said. “The game has moved faster now and positioning is the key so you can make the correct call and I’m learning more about that out here.

“But it’s not just about positioning, but communicating as well. Sometimes you can’t say a word, but because you know what you have to do and how you have to do it, all of this stuff is communicated by signs. So you are watching your other umpires as this is being taught. So I’m very impressed by what I’ve learnt so far and I’m happy to have gained this knowledge to take back home to Freeport. We definitely need this back home.”

And Burrows, a veteran umpire who has been working closely with Martin in a training session for new recruits, said the clinic is something that the umpires will be able to add to their portfolio.

“It shows you that you have to be a team at all times when you are on the field,” Burrows pointed out. “That’s the basic scenario of it. You now have some bench marks to work towards to put your level up to where it should be.”

When the clinic is completed, Burrows said it’s his hope that these umpires will become certified so they can prepare for the series of tournaments coming to the Bahamas starting with the Babe Ruth Caribbean.