OTTAWA- Elemer Jerkovits has spent most of his life calling balls and strikes at baseball diamonds around the province of Saskatchewan. The 47 year-old native of Regina has stood behind home plate or manned the baselines for 35 years and given his time to the sport he loves.
He fell in love with the game as a player, but didn’t start umpiring until an injury prevented him from playing and thus turned his attention towards being part of the game in another capacity.
“I broke my arm (in 1976) at the end of hockey season and couldn’t play ball because my cast was still on,” said Jerkovits who works as a Commercial Property Underwrite for the province of Saskatchewan. “I decided to give umpiring a try and I’ve never really looked back.”
In 1989, he decided to take umpiring more seriously and was certified as a national level 4 umpire, which led to him umpiring his first national event in 1996 at the Senior Men’s championship in nearby Saskatoon.
This past July, Jerkovits was given experience of a lifetime when he made his way to Tokyo, Japan to umpire at the World University Baseball Championships. He was selected through the Baseball Canada Umpires Committee at the 2009 Baseball Canada Fall Convention to represent Canada at the world championship.
Jerkovits, the lone Canadian umpire at the event was part of an umpiring crew that consisted of 11 Japanese umpires, 1 American, 1 Korean, 1 Sri Lankan, 1 Chinese umpire and 1 umpire from Chinese Taipei. With the amount of international umpires you might expect that communication would be an issue but Jerkovits says that it didn’t make the job difficult at all.
“Most of the umpires spoke some form of English but on the field a lot of our habits and positioning were the same.”
Jerkovits had the opportunity to work seven games at the championship which included two games behind the plate and the rest were spent rotating among the bases. Jerkovits was also called to home plate duty when one of the umpires was unable to continue because of heat stroke which was a result of the scorching hot temperatures in Japan.
The ultimate honour for Jerkovits came when he was selected to work first base for the Gold Medal game that featured an extra-inning battle between international baseball rivals, Cuba and USA. In the bottom of the 10th inning Cuba prevailed on a three-run homer to win the game. Jerkovits says that his umpiring skills were put to the test in the intense atmosphere of the Gold Medal game.
“There were about half a dozen plays at first base that could have gone either way,” explained Jerkovits. “The game was great; it kept me on my toes.”
Another highlight happened prior to the Gold Medal game and took some clever thinking by Jerkovits to take place. Japanese homerun king, Sadaharu Oh was on-hand to participate in a pre game ceremony when Jerkovits spotted him and managed to arrange a photo with the legend and all of the other umpires.
“I made sure I stood beside him because I wanted that picture pretty bad,” said Jerkovits. “He shook all of our hands and said thank-you. I was thinking, why would you thank me, I should be the one thanking you.”
So what’s next for an umpire, whose resume also includes three Senior National events and four Canada Cup events, including home plate duties at the 2008 Canada Cup in Medicine Hat?
“I don’t see an end point right now; I take it year-by-year, not because I don’t enjoy it, but because you don’t know what type of personal situation you’ll be in each year.
Jerkovits also takes pride in guiding young umpires of the future and explains how it’s important to get them first of all to sign up to be an umpire, but also continue on with umpiring and make the most of the experience.
“We’ve done a lot of work (in Regina) with trying to develop some new younger umpires,” said Jerkovits. “Not only are we trying to make them better umpires, but in terms of sheer numbers we’re trying to get more people out to work the games.”
Giving the proper training and feedback to young umpires is crucial for their development and keeping them interested in the job. That’s why Jerkovits also lends his time to umpiring the bases at a Mosquito or Peewee game to lend his expertise and support to a young umpire doing home plate. It also gives him a chance to reconnect with the grassroots part of the game to where he got his start umpiring.
“If you love the game and you have an open mind to see both sides of an issue to look at objectively, officiating is a great way to stay involved with the game.”
