Umpiring is more than a call on a field for Vegas Valley Umpires founder David Ruegge, his partner and wife, Carol Ruegge, and manager Chris Schultz. It's a viable livelihood. And for many of the young people and dyed-in-the-mitt baseball enthusiasts from downtown, Summerlin and Henderson who have taken classroom instruction and clinics then gone on to part-time employment by the company, it can become a way of life.

The Ruegges are known to give umpiring advice such as, "The louder and more self-assured you are when you're making your call, the less likely it is that somebody's gonna argue with you," that could just as easily be taken into the boardroom as it could serve a beleaguered ump on the wrong end of a Little League coach's field rage.