Anyone who wishes to be proven wrong, just tell McKenzie’s Kelby McCaleb he can’t do something.
McCaleb, who was a baseball player at McKenzie High School and had coaching stints at Greenfield and Stewart County, attended the Wendelstedt Umpire School in Daytona Beach, Fla. about six years ago.
He was told, as his time there drew to a close, that he wasn’t what they were looking for in the professional leagues. That just stiffened his resolve.
“I had to start over from square one,” said McCaleb. “I went the college route.”
His first game was Jackson State Community College against McKendree. The coaches were curious about the youngster coming out on the field and calling balls and strikes. He felt like he did okay, but when the game was over, he found out he had critics.
“I was told I needed a better hobby,” he said.
Last Wednesday night, he was called to umpire in the Southeastern Conference. Ole Miss played host to Jackson State (Miss.) in a game that was televised on the SEC Network. He was the third base umpire in that game. McCaleb was calling a game at the elite level. Was he nervous? At first, he said he was fine.
“It hit me in the dressing room when the crew chief said, ‘let’s go,’ and we walked out the tunnel on to the field,” McCaleb said. “I felt a few butterflies then.”
One of his pals at the Wendelstedt School was called up to the Big 12 level and was on the field for Oklahoma’s baseball game Tuesday. McCaleb was able to watch his pal that night. The next night, his colleague watched McCaleb in Oxford. His brother, Branson, who is a student at the University of Tennessee, had a watch party with all his pals in Knoxville.
“That was pretty cool,” he said.
It’s not like this was McCaleb’s first rodeo with the SEC. He was asked to get on the field for fall scrimmages at Ole Miss and Mississippi State during October and November.
“That was the first time we’d been on the field since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, colleges cancelled their spring sports and McCaleb couldn’t call any games. Getting on the field for fall season and camps, he says, helped their acuity. McCaleb was set to call a game at Ole Miss last year. He had done a game at Arkansas State the night before and was about to head to Oxford, but the season was cancelled.
When he left the umpire school in Florida, he called games in the New York Collegiate Baseball League and worked in upstate New York that entire summer. He called games in Geneva, N.Y., which was the site of Pete Rose’s first minor league appearance.
“Babe Ruth also played there,” McCaleb said. “It’s an old ballpark with a lot of history and it’s still there.”
After that, he was picked up by the Ohio Valley League where he calls games at UT-Martin, North Alabama, OVC and Gulf-South venues. He said they capped off the newcomers at about five games. Those five games were sort of an audition for future work. He doesn’t really have a set schedule to work in the SEC. He said he is slated to call a game in late March.
“It’s really a waiting game,” he said. “They see how you do, maybe give you a series later, then, it’s sort of like the Major Leagues. If a spot opens up, or somebody retires, you get called up to fill that spot.”
McCaleb said calling a game on a Sunday night and then driving back to Dover for our high school game on Monday caused a lot of sleepless nights. He’s a teacher and assistant with the Obion Central Middle School team and the school has offered him a lot of latitude as it pertains to his umpiring career.
“They’ve been very flexible with me when it comes to umpiring,” he said. “When I have an assignment, they tell me to go.”
McCaleb said he’s met some umpiring legends, guys like Jim Joyce, perhaps best known for missing a call that would have given Detroit pitcher Armando Gallaraga a perfect game.
“Jim Joyce is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,” McCaleb said. “Joe West is just a normal guy. He’d come up and talk to you, ask you where you were from and things like that. At the end of the day, he gave us all rides home in the van he rented.”
Kelby is the son of Murray and Karen McCaleb of McKenzie.
