PROFILES

Weather on TV or on the Field, He Loves His Work

By Steven L. Tietz

Lance Blocker has been on the move most of his career. His most recent stop landed him a job as chief meteorologist at WCBI-TV, a CBS affiliate station in Columbus, Miss.

He knows being a meteorologist is serious work and, when warnings are issued due to severe weather, he can save people’s lives. But he is hoping he can get back into his beloved side job, that of a baseball umpire. It’s a job he decidedly does not see as labor at all.

“I love being a meteorologist,” Blocker said. “They say if you do things right, you will never work a day in your life. I’ve sold security systems, repaired roofs. That was work.

“Umpiring baseball and being a meteorologist — that ain’t work.”

He started his career in meteorology not many years ago and used a baseball analogy to describe his travels.

“When you start out as a meteorologist, you sort of do one year here, one year there,” he said. “It’s like being (an umpire) in the minor leagues.”

Blocker, 34, has had to put his umpiring dreams on hold in recent years because of his career moves and the pandemic. But he kept busy.

He’s been officiating since he was 15, and always admired umpires.

“I started doing rec league stuff,” said the Roswell, Ga., native. “I just enjoyed it and it was fun. I loved the camaraderie and the people.”

He went to the University of Georgia but took time off for a good job working for a security company, which afforded him the flexibility to umpire a great deal, primarily travel and high school ball.

“If I had the opportunity, I would work three to five games a day,” Blocker said, “and with my schedule the way it was, I would sometimes work Monday through Sunday if I wanted to.”

He recalled one ungodly hot day when his partner did not show and he worked five straight games, drinking 26 bottles of water in the process.

“(It was so hot) I don’t think I went to the bathroom but twice,” he said.

Along the way, he graduated from the Minor League Baseball Academy and went back to UGA to earn his degree in atmospheric science. That’s where his odyssey as a traveling meteorologist started. And where he hopes his umpiring career will resume.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back into this as quickly as I can because there’s a real need,” he said. Steven L. Tietz is an award-winning journalist from Milwaukee. 

Lance Blocker knows what kind of weather will await him when he arrives for his next baseball umpiring assignment. As a TV meteorologist in Columbus, Miss., he has access to maps, charts and radar other officials don’t. Stating His Case

Jim Foran

Age: 65 Christina, Mont.

When Jim Foran decided to call it a career after 32 basketball seasons, it was only fitting his final game was the Montana Class C girls’ state championship game.

“Basketball has always been a part of my life,” Foran said. In addition to officiating, Foran coached high school basketball and football. “I had the pleasure of coaching all three of my boys and winning a state basketball title in 2008, when my middle son was a senior and my youngest a sophomore,” he said.

Foran’s final game as an official marked his 23rd state tournament. And while he has enjoyed all of them, perhaps his proudest moment came weeks earlier when he worked a game with his son, Jared.

Early Starter

Zachary Frattaroli

Age: 18 Stanford, Conn.

Zachary Frattaroli, a freshman at Harrisburg (Pa.) University, loves baseball. He never was the best player on his team, but he was the most knowledgeable. He chose umpiring because he felt his impact there was greater than it would be as a coach. He’s now in his second year as an umpire. Frattaroli attended Little League International’s weeklong umpire training academy at its complex in Williamsport, Pa.

“I wanted to continue working with kids in a way that I knew that I would impact the game,” he said. “And I can impact more kids by umpiring than just a single group of kids like if I was coaching.”

After graduating from college, Frattaroli is considering attending umpiring school to pursue a job in pro ball.

The original version of this story can be found at LittleLeague.org.

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