Interview with Cuban Umpire Elber Ibarra

Recognized as one of the top umpires in Cuba for the past five seasons, Elber Ibarra Santiesteban has the satisfaction (or the luck, as he puts it) of never having called a play that would not let him sleep that night.1 Born in Tacajó, a settlement in the current municipality of Báguano, within the province of Holguin on September 11, 1958, the first son of Sótero “Bolinga” Ibarra and Eugenia’s four children (one girl), Ibarra has come a long way to become Cuba’s top umpire (as of 2015).

His father was a sugar mill worker who built his house and started a settlement that is now known as “el Barrio de Bolinga.” He taught his children that hard work and family values and honesty were qualities that should be embedded in a person’s character. “Bolinga” worked very hard his entire life, and all of his four children learned to do the same. Both parents raised their children and the family remained together the two parents passed away. Ibarra, his two brothers, and his sister remain very close.

Since his family was so humble, when he was a boy, Elber had to sell pasty baked by his mother while he was not at school. A graduate with three diplomas (Elementary School Teacher, PT Professor, and Political Economy), Ibarra went to Primary School Julio Antonio Mella in Tacajó and then to Secondary School Julio Antonio Mella (both schools had the same name) in the same municipality, until ninth grade, when he was transferred to Secondary School Conrado Benítez in Banes.

He started playing baseball from a very early age, primarily playing third base and shortstop until becoming a junior, and representing the Banes region in all provincial school games from the earliest to the Junior level. One year, playing in the age 14-15 category, he had to switch to the outfield to accommodate shortstop Jorge Cruz, the first shortstop to hit 100 homers in the Cuban National Series, who had moved from Palma Soriano (Santiago de Cuba) to Banes. After playing in the Juniors, Ibarra worked as a school teacher for three years, and first came across umpiring in 1980. Thirty-five years later, he is Cuba’s top umpire and has been a crew chief for 16 years. As it happens, he worked as a volleyball referee in his early years.

Ibarra does not make a full living out of umpiring, since he is part of the Combinado Deportivo2 of his native Tacajó, where he works as a professor, despite having a house in Holguin a few blocks from Calixto Garcia Stadium, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his beloved grandson. The umpire’s salary as of the end of 2015 is 32.00 CUP (Cuban National Pesos) per officiated game, meaning 1.28 CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos), or what is to say the equivalent of 1.42 US dollars, so the job at the Combinado is what works best to make ends meet. Ibarra has enjoyed the opportunity of working abroad as an umpire or as an instructor.3

His international résumé includes the National Championship of El Salvador in 1996; the Italian National Championship in 1998; the Haarlem Baseball Week, in the Netherlands, in 2002; the first World University Championship in Messina, Italy, in 2002; the last-ever Intercontinental Cup in Taichung, Chinese Taipei, in 2010; the 2012 16U World Championship, the 2013 World Baseball Challenge in Prince George, Canada; the 2014 Caribbean Series in Margarita, Venezuela; the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico; and the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada.

For three years in a row (through the 2014-2015 season) he was chosen the most outstanding umpire in Cuban baseball.

When the Tampa Bay Rays visited Havana to play against the Cuban national team in March 2016, Ibarra served as the home plate umpire.

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When and how did you become interested in umpiring?

In 1980, Norge García, an umpire in the Provincial Series from Báguano, encouraged me and started inviting me, playing in a second category game, he gave me a three-day seminary in Báguano, and we came to a provincial course, with a very large number of umpires from Holguín (there has always been good umpiring in Holguin). We had lessons with Ángel Hernández4, who was the director and main professor of that course, and to whom I owe most of my umpiring knowledge. After the course, Norge was the first in the class and I came as the runner-up, and I started working right away. I never forget that my first game was in Mayarí, in Cerones, in a 13-14 category game. Before that I did not have any interest in umpiring: all I ever wanted was to play.

Tell us about your first National Series game.

Well, my first National Series game was in Puerto Padre (a municipality in Las Tunas), in a game of which I don’t remember who Las Tunas was playing —that’s why I am constantly telling young umpires that they need to write those things down and keep track of their work— in those three games. I do remember it was in the umpire crew led by Alfredo Paz. The Calixto García Stadium manager went to the boarding school where I worked in Tacajó, looking for me urgently, and told me I had been summoned to go to Puerto Padre. I took one of those bags they used to give to catchers to pack their gear and headed to the stadium. I slept in the dorms there, and took a bus to Puerto Padre in the early hours of the morning. Those were my first games, along with Paz (then crew chief), Omar Lucero, and Lázaro Ramírez.

What do you think is the hardest thing for umpires in terms of dealing with the crowd?

I personally don’t pay attention to the crowd’s reaction after a call, and I think the umpire should not listen to them; if you start listening and paying attention to what is happening in the stands, you can’t work at all. Sometimes you can get really annoyed, but as an umpire your best reaction, and what is expected of you, is to remain concentrated on the ballgame. Fans will always scream; they scream at the ballplayers, at the managers, the umpires… But as an umpire you have to think they are in a different world.

What is the hardest thing for being an umpire in Cuba?

I believe that one of the most difficult umpiring jobs in the world is the Cuban. I have had the opportunity to officiate abroad, and it is another kind of baseball, another culture, another idiosyncrasy. When you go to soccer, there have been deaths in the stadiums, but that is not a common happening in baseball. Come to our area, Latin America, you hear some screaming towards the umpire, but it’s also part of our culture as Latinos, and there is no offense. Our baseball is really rough, and our fanbase can get really verbally violent. In earlier days, it was not like that, but lately it has escalated. Our baseball is really rough in that aspect, and the fans are very demanding and knowledgeable.

What are the main characteristics you consider an umpire should have?

They must love this job, that is the first principle. Cuban umpiring is difficult, complex, because of many things we have — like we are directed by the same institution directing the ballplayers, and that is not the case in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, umpiring is separated from the teams. Second, you have to study, you need to have courage, courage to make the right decision in the difficult moment, whether it is to make the right call affecting the outcome of the game or ejecting a player… and in order to do that, you need to have another characteristic: neutrality. You need to be impartial. You cannot start thinking of who is hitting, who is pitching or what team is playing in order to make a call. For me it is the same, whether the batter is Cuba’s top slugger or a rookie out of the junior category. You do need to try to do your job better every day, especially when a championship is on the line, and be impartial. The whole world acknowledges that Cuban umpires are very impartial.

It is said that Cuban umpires have two big challenges: the strike zone and the calls on plays at third base. What can you tell us about it?

Sometimes people do not understand much about those two plays. Ever since I started playing and umpiring, the strike zone is only one, and varies according to the player who is hitting.When I started, it was said by rule that the strike zone went from the armpits to the lower part of the knees, at the moment when the hitter started swinging. Now the rule says the strike zone goes from a middle line between the shoulders and the waist of the hitter, what we call “to the letters,” to the lower part of the knees, and seventeen inches in the width of the home plate. Every batter has his own strike zone, and you need to take into account that it is at the moment when he is about to swing, because there are hitters who look tall, but then crouch at the moment of swinging. The call must be made at that moment because that is the effective area for him to hit. What cannot happen, and it is the challenge you mentioned, is calling it a strike if it goes outside the seventeen inches of home plate. If it doesn’t go over the plate, it cannot be a strike. We can always improve in that aspect (and I criticize myself along with my colleagues). We Cuban umpires also have to work on the lower part of the strike zone, because we often overlook that type of pitch (normally above the knees of the batter) and call them balls. When we watch the games on television we assess the work of our peers and we see that those pitches, normally called for balls, are strikes. That can create a problem when Cuban hitters play overseas, that they get those pitches called for strike, because they like working in the low area of the strike zone. I remember asking two Puerto Ricans in the 2014 Caribbean Series, and they preferred the low zone over the high zone. It is my personal opinion that the strike zone is established to be called properly, both high and low areas. If we don’t do so, we are unfair to the pitchers.

Regarding the third-base plays, every time the umpire is positioned wrong, there can be a wrong call. Sometimes the umpire places himself where he should be, and there is a wide throw, or the baserunner slides awkwardly, and the umpire cannot see the play properly and then he will struggle to make a call. It is very hard, and sometimes the fans are cruel to third-base umpires. I have spoken to some fans and explained this point, and they have finally agreed with me, but in the heat of the game, they don’t stop and think for a moment.

I remember, during a course given by an umpire from Puerto Rico, he said that “the umpire has to know how to ‘read’ the plays.” By that, he meant that even when the umpire is positioned correctly, he needs to anticipate what can happen in order to avoid being surprised. You know, whenever there is a play, the umpire normally tends to position himself for a “perfect play,” in other words, a good throw and a clean slide, but when one of those things is not like that, you as an umpire need to read the motion of the ball and the players in order to re-position yourself to make the right call. And even so, the call can be blown.

A difficult call you have had to make?

I remember a particular play in the final playoff of the 2009-2010 Cuban National Series between Villa Clara and Industriales, and I’m pretty sure you remember that play: the two consecutive outs made at the plate by Ariel Pestano. It was really tough, because it was a very heated playoff, and they came one after the other. When I looked over the left side and I saw Serguei Pérez rounding third with Rudy Reyes on his heels I told myself,”Oh, dear Lord.” Then I had to follow the ball and at the same time follow up the runners. It was so fast! All I remember is the dust lifting, and Pestano blocking the plate, ball in hand, preventing Serguei from scoring and Rudy lying down there, then he tagged them both in the blink of an eye… I remember looking at the plate, looking at Pestano, then at Serguei and realizing there was no way Rudy would have gone under both of them to touch the plate, because Serguei himself hadn’t been able to, and I called him out as well. This all happened much faster than I tell you and I had just seconds to make a call. Later on, I was told by a similar play made in the major leagues, but I have no information about another play like that in Cuba.5

That playoff had a particular play at second base, when Andy Sarduy tagged Alexander Malleta as he was running by trying to elude the tag and the umpire called the runner safe. It was actually the first time a manager (Eduardo Martin, in this case) called for replay to be used.

Yes, that was out… I cannot forget that play. That is one example of what I was telling you before: the umpire was positioned correctly, and then there was no way that he could have seen that play. He was in his right position, but when Malleta ran by, he blocked the umpire’s view, so he didn’t see whether Canto had tagged him or not and called him safe. That heated up the game and the situation went pretty difficult for us.

I remember umpiring the last game behind the plate, and Yandris Canto homered and tied things up when Industriales was about to celebrate. Imagine how I felt. The last thing I want or like to do as an umpire is to work extra-innings, because you are normally walking on thin ice when it comes to fan and media criticism. You may have umpired a nice game, and made the right calls most of the time, and then, all of a sudden, you blow a call in the tenth inning that costs one team the game. That is one game I never forget, because by the ninth inning I had this feeling and was thinking “I’m doing a great job here,” then comes Canto and ties the game, because no umpire wants to work extra innings. But when things are on the line, and a close play is the difference between ending the game and keeping it going, the umpire won’t let this influence, even though it is a bang-bang play and he may be prone to miss a call later on. By that time, I want the game to end, but that is very different from ending it myself with an unfair call.

Let’s talk about what was requested that day: the replay. What do you think of it?

I’m going to be straight honest with you. When I heard that they were using the replay in the majors and it was decided to use it in Cuba as well, I was very critical because I thought the umpire’s work would become meaningless. But when I saw it for the first time I had to admit that things truly are fairer now… although there remain times when the calls are really hard even with replay. We Cubans don’t have the technology we see in MLB Advanced Media, so sometimes the calls are still hard to make. The other day we had contact in Havana with the authorities, and I was asked the same question. I told them I liked it, because when the replay is available, the umpire works without the pressure of having the possibility of deciding a ball game with a blown call. Now the umpires have more confidence, and they will be less prone to mistakes. You know what would be terrible? If they decided to disallow it after people have gotten used to it. Can you imagine?

Can you give us examples of how an umpire can anticipate?

The umpire should not be thinking about who’s hitting or pitching or who’s on base, but he needs to prepare for what can happen. When Luis Ulacia used to play, or now when you have guys like Julio Pablo Martínez or Yurisbel Gracial, you need to be ready, because you can allow your eyes to get caught up in a close play at first base with an apparently easy grounder, and you need to decide fast and properly. When one of these players hits a chopper, you know things are going to get messy at first, so the umpire needs to be prepared in order to make the right call. Of course, the most important anticipation is to know the umpiring job and to do everything possible to make the right call all the time. But as tension rises for the players, it rises for the umpires as well, and it is then that you need to avoid making the wrong call. We are human beings, thus subject to err, but even so, the umpires are not expected to, and when they do, they are seldom forgiven. There are moments, like a base- loaded situation on a full count and the tying run on third base… you see it wrong and call ball four, the hitter wins the game, if you see it wrong and call strike three, the hitter loses the game, so we need to double out concentration in moments like that. I daresay those tense moments are more tense and difficult for the umpire, because if the hitter strikes out, or hits a homer, it is part of the game… the umpire making the wrong call is not supposed to be part of the game, and the repercussions can last for days and days.

So, you would say that people are unfair to umpires?

I would say so. People are unfair to umpires without thinking that we are just as the players: human beings who can be wrong sometimes, but we always want to do things right. When a player makes an error that costs the game, what do you think happens? His world collapses around him, and he barely sleeps that night. We go through the same thing. The fielder misplays an easy grounder, or an easy fly ball, or the hitter swings at the wrong pitch, or the pitcher throws a pitch right up in the strike zone, good enough for a homer. None of them wants to mess things up. We are just the same. I would say that I am very fortunate that I haven’t blown a call in a moment like that, but I have made mistakes too, and it feels really bad. There are those bang-bang plays that you can call right or wrong, but I have to say that I do believe in luck, because it has kept me from blowing a big call in a big moment.

Do you believe that the way catchers prepare and train can have any influence in the work of an umpire?

For sure. A catcher who doesn’t work properly or doesn’t keep good framing makes it very difficult for umpires to make the right call. And I will give you an example: Pedro Luis Rodríguez. Working with him was great, because he never stepped off the catcher’s box and kept great framing on pitches. When catchers are good doing their job, the umpire finds it easier to do ours. Sometimes the catcher will even jump and stand up in front of the umpire at the moment of the delivery, thus blocking the umpire’s view and making it impossible to make the right call. With the speed of pitches and the little time one has to decide, it is important that the umpire’s view doesn’t get disturbed. So, when there is a good catcher, the umpire calls strikes and balls with little problems, but when the catcher is not good enough, the umpire has to work twice as hard.

What do you think can be done to improve the work of Cuban umpires?

First, we have to be more demanding and critical of our own work. We also really need to be under the command of a different entity; today we are still being led by the same organization as the one leading the players. So we do not have an umpires’ union, and we need an umpires’ union that is independent from the baseball apparatus. Increasing the umpires’ wages, in order to gain more motivation. One other thing that can make things better is the exchange with other leagues, both inward an outward. Bringing foreign umpires to work here and sending Cuban umpires to work in leagues overseas will widen the knowledge and experience of umpiring in Cuba. We once had an experience with Italian umpires in Cuba, and right now they are discussing bringing some Panamanians to work in our league. Interacting with foreign umpires would give us the opportunity to exchange knowledge, tricks of the trade, and experience, and our going to their leagues would provide an opportunity to experience different levels of demand. It is nothing but the same as with the players: in order to increase the quality and professionalism of our players we need to let them go and play in other baseball leagues… well, umpires should have that opportunity, too, as should scorekeepers and everyone related to baseball, It will help make it better for the fans. We recently had a seminar with a Puerto Rican umpire and I would assess the experience as very fruitful. Now, those actions should be multiplied.

Who do you consider to be among the great umpires in Cuba? And the ones you have had the opportunity to work with?

Well, I never had the chance of seeing or working with the all-time great Amado Maestri, nor did I meet Rafael de la Paz, who was known as one of the top umpires. Yet, I have had the honor of working with the next generation of umpires. I started very young, at 31, which was considered such an earlier age at the time, that after starting in 1980 it took me four years to go to a national course. So, I worked with umpires who were extremely respected, such as Alfredo Paz, Manuel “El Chino” Hernández, Alejandro Montesinos, Ivan Davis, Orlando Valdés, and many others. Then came another generation, and I worked with Nelson Díaz, César Valdés, Omar Lucero, Melchor Fonseca, Javier Rodríguez… there have been very good umpires in Cuba.

We have a very unique case in Cuba, and that is Yanet Moreno, a female umpire in the Cuban National Series. What can you tell us about her?

Yanet is the only woman in Cuba working baseball as an umpire at the national level. There are other female umpires in Cuba, but those work mainly female baseball and males within their own provinces, and I heard (I don’t know whether it is true or not) that she is the only female umpire in the world working in the top male league in her country. She has been working with me for two years, right now she is in my crew. She has come a long way, and has learned a lot. She has become a good umpire, and of course, she still has a lot to improve, like all of us do. She works pretty well as home plate umpire, and she makes very good calls on the bases. She likes the job very much and she is also very devoted to it.

It is nice to report that there has been no discrimination towards her by her peers (as far as I understand). We get along very well in our crew. All we do is help her, like trying to keep her from lifting heavy loads and stuff like that, mainly the young guys. We have a very good work relationship in our crew. She has been climbing due to her hard work and devotion, and due to her talent and the quality of her performance. She has not been given any special treatment in terms of reaching the position she holds now: it has been the result of her own effort.

National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

 

Notes

1 Author interview with Elber Ibarra was conducted in person on December 11, 2015.

2 Combinadodeportivo: In Cuba, every large area, part of People’s Councils, have a similar to a sports academy, covering several sports, where different trainers coach kids and promote sports activities.

3 The average Cuban salary is around 600 CUP, which is the same as 24 CUC or 21.60 US dollars. In Cuba, most food, houding, medical care, education, and other things are provided free of charge.

4 This is not the same man as MLB umpire Ángel Hernández.

5 The reference is to the play in which umpire John Hirschbeck called out Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew during the second inning of Game One of the 2006 NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets.