The window of opportunity to become a major league baseball umpire does not come often. ISU alumnus Eric Cooper said he is very fortunate to be able to go to the ballpark for his job.

“It’s a very unique profession, that not very many people are lucky enough, or have the ability to do,” he said.

“It’s a very special, refined group.”

Cooper wrapped up the first playoff games of his career earlier this week, umpiring games from both American League divisional series (New York-Minnesota and Oakland-Boston). He was the third base umpire for the fifth and deciding game of the Red Sox and Athletics’ series.

He said 36 umpires are selected for the postseason by six supervisors throughout the year who rank and evaluate them. Seniority and merit are the deciding factors, he said.

“It was my first postseason assignment, so I was excited to get that,” he said.

He said knowing one of those teams had to be sent home after the game added to the playoff intensity.

“I’m not going to say that I didn’t feel pressure or nerves,” he said. “But the nervousness was more from adrenaline from the intensity and crowd.”

After five seasons umpiring in the majors, Cooper said he no longer looks at Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez or other star players the same way. On the field, he said, he respects the players, and the players respect him.

“I don’t have the same awe I had watching them on TV before,” he said. “I appreciate their abilities, but I’m not out there to sit and stargaze. We both have jobs to do.”

ISU intramural referee

Cooper is not one to forget people who helped him along the way. One person he gives credit to is Garry Greenlee, intramural sports coordinator. Cooper worked as Greenlee’s undergraduate assistant and got his start in officiating at Iowa State.

“Greenlee got me involved in refereeing intramurals,” Cooper said. “He took me under his wing.”

Cooper also umpired high school baseball, he said.

“In Iowa, they have summer high school baseball, so I was umpiring doubleheaders six or seven days a week,” Cooper said.

It was during his junior year that he started considering umpiring as a career choice, he said. Greenlee then got him an application for a professional umpire school.

“Eric always knew he had what it takes to be a major league umpire,” Greenlee said. “Eric is a great example of what hard work and determination can accomplish.”

But with just 68 major league umpiring positions for 15 games a day, talent isn’t always enough to crack the big leagues.

“He also knew that it would take the right timing for his dream to come true and that it was a real possibility that it may not happen,” Greenlee said. “If there is not a place for you during your window of opportunity, you won’t make it, even if you’re a great umpire.”

Rise to the majors

Eric Cooper graduated from Iowa State in the fall of 1989 with a degree in business and transportation logistics, but he said he just wasn’t ready for an job.

So he attended the Joe Brinkman Umpiring School in 1990 in Cocoa, Fla. Twenty-five umpires are selected out of 325 at the school to umpire professionally, Cooper said.

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” he said. “It struck a good nerve in me.”

In 1991, he did his first professional game for the Phillies’ rookie league baseball team in Florida. It was then, he said, that it really hit him.

“I read the turquoise lettering on their jerseys and it struck me as ‘Oh my God, these guys are professionals,'” he said.

He got his first chance in the majors during the 1996 season.

“My first [major league baseball] game was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 17, 1996,” he said. “I was filling in for umpire Richie Garcia, who was attending his son’s graduation from the Marine Corps.

“It was a special day that I’ll never forget.”

He said he expected only to be up in the major leagues for one series.

“They wanted me to fill in for three days, but then another umpire got hurt from another crew so I filled in for that guy,” he said.

“Three days turned into 25.”

When an opening became available at the MLB level in 1999, Cooper was offered a full-time contract. He had been an umpire in the minor leagues for eight years.

“What happens is you have to work your way through minor leagues starting at the lowest level,” he said.

He said that top Class AAA umpires are called up to replace MLB umpires who are injured or on vacation.

“Scouts attend AAA games unannounced,” he said. “You don’t even know they scouted you until they tell you after.”

Crowd control

He said along with having good judgment and being able to think and be calm under pressure, body language plays a big role in umpiring, especially when the managers and players argue.

“I have to calm them down, and control the argument,” he said.

“You have to be able to convince the people on the field and the thousands of fans in the seats that you’re right.”