French Baseball Umpire

About me

. Baseball & Softball player from 1988 to 2022

. Baseball & Softball coach from 1993 to 2022 (youth Baseball/Softball, adult Baseball and co-ed Softball)

. Board member for several clubs in France

. League’s staff member

. Started umpiring in 2013, though my 1st class was in 2002

. +12-year / +700-game umpire experience (see more details below)

. Instructor for the French Federation from 2018 to 2023

. Worked 2 – 3 – 4 and 6 umpire crews

. Moved to San Diego in September 2023 (see more details below)

Clinics and supervisions

. AP Western States Umpire Clinic – 3 & 4-Umpire Camp – Las Vegas, Nevada – October 24-27, 2024

Instructors: Anthony Prater, Jimmy Craig, Alberto Ruiz & Jacob Asher, all NCAA umpires

. Umpire Focus 2-Umpire Camp – Phoenix, Arizona – October 18-20, 2024

Instructors: Adam Dowdy (former MLB umpire & NCAA D1 umpire), Alex Tosi (MLB umpire) & Brian Fields (former MiLB umpire)

. SDCBUA Clinics (San Diego County Baseball Umpire Association) – Dec 2023 & Feb. 2024 –

Instructors: Ryan Bell (Junior College umpire & SDCBUA President) & Jordan Shepard (Former MiBL umpire and College umpire)

. WBSC Europe Clinic (World Baseball & Softball Confederation) in Modena, Italy – February 2022

Instructor: Zdenek Zidek, MiLB Umpire & WBSC Europe Baseball Umpiring Committee Director

. French D1 & D2 umpire Clinic – Paris – 2020

Instructors: Serge Makouchetchev (French umpire who worked the 2016 WBC Qualifier in New York), Peter Brink and Edwin A. Louisa, WBSC Dutch Umpires (Edwin worked the World Baseball Classic in 2023, and both the U23 World Cup in Columbia and the WBSC Premier 12 in 2024)

. Little League Clinic – Kutno, Poland – March 2019

Instructor: Sean Guilday

Every game I worked in either European tournaments, Little League, Challenge de France or French Championship Semi-Finals or Finals, has been supervised. I always gain a lot of information from these supervisions and I always look forward to receiving more!

Experience in France

. I started umpiring in the French Divisions 2 & 3 in 2013

. French Division 1 since 2016
Adult ball, highest level in France with a lot of players from the United States, the Dominican Republic, Cuba… and pitchers like Mathias Lacombe, the first French pitcher to be drafted by a MLB franchise, the White Sox, in 2023.
Also, a dozen of players were drafted by NCAA teams in recent years.

. French All-Star Games: 2016 @3B – 2017 @3B & 2018 @ HP
French National Team vs. the best foreign players playing in the French D1 championship

. Championship semi-finals : 2018, 2021, 2022 & 2023

. Championship Finals 2022 (Game 4 @ HP)

. Championship Finals 2023 (Games 1 & 5 @ HP)

. Challenge de France (Top 8 Division 1 teams Tournament) : 2019, 2021 (Championship game @2B), 2022 (Championship game @ HP) & 2023 (Championship game @ HP… during 13 innings!)

Experience in Europe & in the U.S.

. Collegiate Baseball League Europe – European Tournament – 2015 – 2016 & 2017

. French U18 National Team Vs Dutch U18 National Team – 4 games – 2017

. Swedish Division 1 – Sölvesborg Vs Stockholm – August 2018

. Little League Europe & Africa Regional Tournament – Kutno, Poland – 2018 (Championship game @HP)

. European Championship Juveniles U12 – Czech Republic – 2019 (Championship game @1B)

. Little League Europe & Africa Regional Tournament – Kutno, Poland – 2019

. European Championship U23 – Verona, Italy – 2021 (Championship game @3B)

. Little League Senior Europe & Africa Regional Tournament – Novara, Italy – 2022 (Championship game @HP)

. European Confederation Cup Senior – 2022 – Rouen, France

. European Championship U15 Qualifier – 2022 – Budapest, Hungary (Championship game @3B)

. European Champions Cup Senior – 2023 – Amsterdam & Bussum – The Netherlands

. Senior League Little League Europe & Africa Tournament – July 2023 – Novara, Italy

. Senior League Baseball World Series – July 29 – August 5, 2023 – Easley, SC – USA :

• US Championship game @ Home plate
+
• World Series Championship game @ 2nd Base

Since September 2023

Since September 2023, I’ve been working with several associations in San Diego, North County and Orange County:

San Diego County Baseball Umpire Association
San Diego Adult Baseball League
North County Adult Baseball League
Black & Blue Umpire Association

I’ve worked more than 260 games in California, Arizona, Nevada and even in Washington! And different levels and rules sets:

Pony League
Little League
Travel ball
Adult ball
High-school tournaments and one play-off game
USABF tournaments
College baseball scrimmage games in SDSU and USD

Games

2013

25 games

2014

16 games

2015

32 games

2016

43 games

2017

44 games

2018

48 games

2019

68 games

2020 (Covid season)

11 games

2021

38 games

2022

62 games

2023

107 games

2024

236 games

The 2025 season

I want to move to College Baseball because:

I want to learn more and improve even more
I love the challenge
I won’t get any better working travel ball and adult games
I don’t want to become lazy on the field

I don’t want to work with partners who wear fishing hats while working the bases!
I do care about « details » like positioning and angle over distance
And I don’t want to work anymore with partners who don’t…
High-school was my first goal. College is my next goal
So… play-ball!