October 12, 2011
Friendly neighborhood umpire
by Brett Rudy/
Umpire Alberto Collado has become a fixture on the local amateur baseball scene with his personable approach. (photo: Brett Rudy/New England Baseball Journal)
Umpiring is a thankless profession, constantly standing in judgment of the players, who regularly remind you that you’re no good at your job.
Umpires — even the best of them — sometimes are seen as the enemy, another impediment to victory. An umpire often has few friends on the field.
Unless you are Alberto Collado.
On the field, Alberto is recognized by his boisterous “Ah, Sí!” trademark strikeout call. And, although last names are a baseball staple, everybody bonds with Alberto using his first name.
A member of the South Shore Umpires Association, Alberto, 55, is generally regarded as one of the best amateur umpires in and around Boston, thanks not only to the quality of his work but also the strong relationships he’s forged.
Many umpires try to distance themselves from the ballplayers they see with such regularity, so that conflicts don’t get personal. Alberto’s approach is different.
“One of the umpire laws says that it’s not too good to be friendly with the players,” he said. “But I like to do it opposite so I can relate to the players on the field, and I can probably get them out of trouble, get myself out of trouble, by just mingling with them and talking about certain plays that they might like, they might not like. If they get upset, I can work with them, and this way I can not throw them out of a game.”
It’s a plan that has worked. Alberto has tossed only a handful of players out of games in the past four years.
“I have a good relationship with the players, so it works perfect with me, so far,” he said. “No problem at all.”
Alberto, who now lives in Roslindale, Mass., originally was trained to officiate baseball in New York City by professional Caribbean umpires.
He later received certification at the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring in Florida. Alberto arrived on the Boston scene in 2001 while visiting from his home in New York to officiate a youth tournament. Soon after, he made Boston his permanent home.
“I started here to do an AAU tournament, and somebody saw me umpiring,” Alberto said. “He approached me, and then his boss called me up. Then I moved to Boston so I’d be able to do a lot of baseball games.”
And a lot of games he has done.
“I’ve done games in the MSBL, MABL, Yawkey League, Park League, AAU, high school, a little bit of college,” he said. “It’s so many leagues. I can’t remember them all. Last time I counted, I had 202 games this year. I average 230. Last year, I did 270 games.”
Recognizing that it can be tough to come to work and be disagreed with so regularly, Alberto has learned to manage these situations.
“As an umpire, it comes from experience with the years you work in this business,” he said. “You’re gonna know that one team is going to be happy, and another team is not going to be happy with you. Of course, the winning team is gonna be absolutely great. You’re the best for them. The losing team is gonna be mad with you, because they probably lost the game because of you.”
Alberto even brought up a call he admittedly blew that cost a team the game.
“On that play, it was the bottom of the seventh inning, home team is hitting,” he explained. “And I made the wrong call, and the guy from third scores the tying run, the guy from second scored the winning run. And the game was over on a call that I made that was incorrect. So you have to learn how to deal with it. As an umpire, you don’t want the game to finish on your call. You want the players to win or lose the game.”
That play didn’t sit well with Alberto, but he handled it well.
“It did bother me a little bit,” he said. “But at the same time, as an umpire, you can not carry one game in your personal life, or a mistake you did, you have to understand there is a next game tomorrow.”
Knowing that the umpire is always expected to be right, Alberto has his own views on what truly makes a good umpire.
“What I really believe is that an umpire is only good in the game they are doing that day,” he said. “I don’t think there is a good umpire or a bad umpire. I don’t think there is a better umpire than another umpire. I just think what you do best in that one game, you’re doing that one day is what really counts. So I try to do my best at that game that I’m doing that night or that day. I’m not better than anybody. I could have a good game last night, and the next day have a terrible game. It all depends how you work, and how you approach the game, that day.”
It was tough for Alberto to pinpoint his favorite games to come to work for.
“I do so many leagues with prestigious names,” he said. “Personally, my best games have been in the MABL. I feel that the players in the MABL play with heart — especially in the championship games. A few years ago, we had a really good series between the White Sox and Cutters. I enjoyed that series so much. It was very intense. The guys were into it. It was so much beautiful baseball. I got to say, maybe my favorite league, and maybe I’ll get in trouble for saying this, is the MABL. They’re not the greatest players out here, but they give me the best games.”
Jason Bressner joined the Boston MABL in 2001, the same year as Alberto, as a manager for the Boston Orioles, where he remains today as the league’s second-most tenured skipper.
“I love having Alberto as an umpire because of his infectious love for baseball, which manifests itself through his animated calls, and the enjoyment that he finds in chatting with the players,” Bressner said.
“He knows me and many of my teammates well from the many conversations that we’ve had over the years between innings and after games.”
Alberto is perhaps more accurate with his calls than he gives himself credit for.
“More than any other umpire in the league,” Bressner added, “he also has earned the respect of the players for his ability to get almost every call right, leaving teams to dictate the outcome of each contest themselves. Alberto is an iconic figure in the Boston MABL and one of the league’s greatest assets.”
Alberto is a humble guy and is quick to assure all umpires get their fair share of credit.
“I’m very happy to be a Boston baseball umpire and am very, very content,” Alberto said. “I just want everybody to know out there how difficult this job is and how hard all of us try to do the best we can. We’re not perfect. We make mistakes. We’re human. But I want to congratulate my other partners. I don’t know one umpire that doesn’t do the best of their ability. It’s great to be around those guys.”
This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue of New England Baseball Journal
To view the complete interview with umpire Alberto Collado, visit bit.ly/ump-alberto
Brett Rudy is the founder of the Boston Amateur Baseball Network. He can be reached at bostonbb@bostonbaseball.com
