By Justin Graves

Justin@athensnews-courier.com

Eugene Sales has seen a lot of kids grow up before his eyes at local ball parks. He’s seen several good athletes and a few good games. In fact, there’s not many things related to local sports Sales has missed over the years, except maybe a few calls.

Sales has been officiating local youth league and high school sports for 36 years and he wouldn’t think about taking a minute of it back.

“I love being an umpire,” he said. “You’ve got to love it to do it as long as I have. It’s one of those things that if it’s in your blood, there’s no way you’ll ever quit. I’m going to keep on calling games until I’m 70.”

Sales started calling baseball games after he graduated from high school in 1969. He was a standout athlete at Trinity High School and wanted to stay involved in local sports after graduation. Sales figured being an umpire was his best bet.

“I just like sports,” Sales said. “More than likely I would have been at the ballpark anyway watching games, so I thought I might as well get paid for being there.”

Even though Sales found a way to stay involved in local athletics, there was one thing about being an official he didn’t count on – everyone doesn’t always agree with the calls you make. He said you have to be able to brush things like that off, but that can be one of the hardest things for a new umpire to learn.

“You’ve got to have thick skin to be an official,” Sales said. “Sometimes the fans will get on you, but you’ve got to stick by your decision. When you start second guessing yourself is when you mess up.”

Sometimes not only the crowd is guilty about getting on the officials. There are times when coaches takeover that role. Even though Sales said it’s not unusual for coaches to argue calls, he thinks he has good relationships with most coaches he’s worked with.

“There are a lot of good coaches around here,” he said. “Most coaches may not like you while the games going on, but when you see them the next day they’ll talk to you when you see them out somewhere.”

Sales is confident in his decision making now after 36 years of experience, but he admits that it took time to get where he is now.

“Umpiring is like anything else, you get better the more you do it,” he said. “I know I’ve missed calls. It’s going to happen. The most important thing is you learn from you mistakes and try to learn from others who have been doing it longer than you.”

Sales has officiated big time high school football, basketball and baseball games and been on the field with prep athletes that have went on to bigger and better things. But the games that give Sales enjoys the most are youth league baseball games.

“The kids playing youth ball love playing the game,” he said. “One of my most memorable tournaments was the Cal Ripken, Jr. tournament this summer in Madison. It’s fun watching these kids grow up and become good players.”