Bethel Alumni Officiate in Professional Sports

By Holly Donato '78 in cooperation with Jeff Nelson and Greg Barkey

Quick instincts. Thick skin. A bit of wanderlust: These are the traits of officials who take the heat so that fair play prevails in professional sports—guys like two alumni who started careers while working their way through Bethel. Here's a slice of their lives.

Jeff Nelson '87

Major League Umpire

"I'm one of the fortunate or unfortunate people in one of 30 major league stadiums every night getting booed," quips Jeff Nelson '87, an umpire in major league baseball for the past nine years. "It's a job where you have to be perfect starting out and get better every day after that." Nelson spoke to a group of fellow alumni before umpiring a Minnesota Twins game in July.

Nelson endured a meager existence in the minor leagues for eight years until he was finally called up for his first major league assignments in 1997 and was signed on full time in 1999. This season he marked 1,000 regular season games in the majors. Those games have included two division series, the 2006 All-Star Game, and the 2005 World Series between Chicago and Houston. He was behind the plate when Mark McGwire hit his 500th career home run and worked the game in which Rickey Henderson collected his 3,000th hit.

Instincts on the Field

"Home plate is the most pressure," says Nelson, explaining that umpires rotate clockwise around the bases in a series. "You have to decide 350 pitches a night." On third base, he watches check swings, tag plays, and steals. And on first, the biggest challenge is forced outs, which he often calls by sound—listening to what comes first: the "stomp" on the bag or the "thud" in the glove. Technology puts every call under public judgment, says Nelson. In ESPN broadcasts, at least 24 cameras cover the game, and microphones are placed inside base bags and in the dirt. But the greatest scrutiny comes from the major league itself: strict enforcement of the 17" regulation strike zone. League cameras capture every call at home plate and evaluate all of them against a computer-aided accuracy system. The ump is given a DVD of the results after each game. "Even if the pitch is out [of the strike zone] by a half-inch, it's the same as missing the call by three feet as far as the league's concerned," says Nelson. "The public doesn't understand the standard we're held to."

At Yankee Stadium, after conferring with the other umps on the field to reverse a home run, Nelson survived bottles and coins raining down from the rafters as 60 riot cops took the perimeter of the field. "When they throw stuff," he says of the stadium's steeply banked seats, "they don't have to throw it that far!"

Nelson's accurate instincts have surprised even him, and have earned him competitive post-season jobs. During a division game in Atlanta, he recalls "I had three nasty plays at first base and thought I got them all wrong. But I got them all right." That success, he believes, led to his call-up to the World Series, an assignment based on merit.

Does he have friendships with any players? "You don't socialize," he says. "I might have said 10 words to the catchers and batters last night. One was to tell [6'4" Twins catcher] Joe Mauer to get shorter: ‘Move over, move down. But you've got to give me a look,' I said."

Despite flying 50,000 miles each summer, working 157 games, and getting just one day off every other week, Nelson is still hooked. "I like what I do and get to spend summers in the best cities in North America. I've had the opportunity to spend time in the best stadiums in the United States."

Roots at Bethel

Nelson credits Bethel with giving him the stamina to stay with a profession where only one percent of students entering umpire school make it to the majors. "Bethel may not have taught me umpiring," he says, "but Bethel taught me to work hard toward a far-off goal."

His Christian higher education, he said, also helped him endure lonely times "between Idaho and Alberta, wondering if there's any future." And finally, he says, Bethel gave him an education that was "every bit what it was advertised to be." He credits skills in public speaking and critical thinking honed at Bethel for helping him conduct negotiations on behalf of the World Umpires Association union.

Nelson says he's pleased to see Bethel's expanded academic choices, larger enrollment, and improvement in athletic facilities. "At Bethel, students don't have to choose between playing sports and getting a good education," he noted. "When I go back to campus, I can see God's been doing some great things."

Greg Barkey '85

World Cup Soccer Referee

In July, Greg Barkey '85 was part of a U.S. team of assistant referees invited to the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006. It was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, made even better by meeting other Christian referees.

"I felt honored to represent the U.S.A.," Barkey writes to Focus. "Especially when I knew there were thousands of referees around the world wishing they could take my place."

Barkey fell in love with soccer (called football in most of the world) as a missionary kid living in Argentina, when he watched his adopted country take the world title. Known as "Pato" while a student and soccer player at Bethel, he helped Bethel take its only MIAC soccer championship his freshman year, and refereed local matches on the side. After graduation, Barkey settled in New Jersey with his wife Kristina [Ambjor] '85 and began to referee major league soccer matches around the U.S. while working in TV production and coaching high school soccer.

Surrendering a dream

In 1995 Barkey was named to the Federation Internationale of Football Associations (FIFA) Panel of International Assistant Referees, a designation that took him to matches in places like Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and France, and made him eligible to officiate at the World Cup—"the holy grail for football referees." But the clock was ticking. Age 45 means mandatory retirement for refs, and FIFA had a history of turning to smaller countries for assistant referees. The 2006 World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany, would be his last chance.

"In 2004, the church I attended did the ‘40 Days of Purpose' series," says Barkey. "So I decided to turn it over to Him. ‘Lord, if Your purpose in my life is to get me to the World Cup, then You will open the doors,' I prayed." Soon after, FIFA decided to call up teams of three officials, and Barkey was chosen to be part of Team U.S.A.

There was one condition: Barkey would need to be free for 20 days in July 2005 and the entire month of September to referee international matches that FIFA officials would monitor. Kristina and their three kids had always managed during his international trips, but Barkey wondered how he'd get that kind of time off his job.

Then, a cell phone call while Barkey waited at an airport: His TV station was suddenly downsizing. A severance package would be waiting on his desk.

"Thanks," he told them. "Your call is an answer to prayer." fellowship at the World Cup

The atmosphere in Frankfurt was as exciting as Barkey anticipated. "The international media, the pressure, the nerves—these are the things I lived. It was electric."

For 37 days Barkey realized his dream, though it fell short of refereeing a match. "I served as fifth official on three matches, sitting by the field in uniform only to referee if one of the other officials was to get injured," he explains. "It was an odd feeling—exciting to be there, but not able to work a game."

Another door opened, though: Barkey met other Christian referees from around the world who settled any questions about the relevance of faith to football.

Fellow referee Justice Yeboah, Barkey learned, pastors a growing church in downtown Accra in the nation of Ghana, and planned to use his World Cup earnings to help purchase a larger building for his congregation. Marco Rodriguez from Mexico was devoting his bonus to create a Christian ministry for underprivileged children in his hometown. And Dario Garcia from Argentina prayed for each referee by name every morning. ("How reassuring was that!").

The group of Christian referees supported each other through fitness tests and timed runs that could have sent any one of them packing.

"I had run in a group of 10 referees, including Justice," he recalls. "While we gathered our gear, Justice asked us all to come together so he could share a prayer of thanks to God for helping us that day. I peeked. And what I saw, I want to freeze forever in my mind: a circle of referees from South Africa, Costa Rica, Egypt, Japan, Chile, Ghana, Belgium, and Australia, holding hands in the middle of a football field in Germany, thanking the Lord for opening doors."

Barkey now works as a Spanish teacher and assistant soccer coach at West Morris Central High School in Chester, N.J. His wife Kristina is a labor and delivery nurse. Their son, Brent, is a freshman at Bethel, and their two daughters live at home.