{"id":307221,"date":"2026-05-09T05:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307221\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:03:11","slug":"bakersfield-little-league-umpire-goes-viral-for-unique-game-calling-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307221\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield Little League umpire goes viral for unique game-calling skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif (KBAK\/KBFX) Major league umpires have faced criticism this baseball season for missed balls and strikes, but in Bakersfield, a Little League umpire is drawing attention for a different reason: the way he moves around the field to make calls.<\/p>\n

Sawyer Sparks, a Little League umpire in Bakersfield, recently went viral for his energetic style of calling games. <\/p>\n

Less than a week ago, Sparks appeared in an Instagram video taken by a parent watching his son\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield Little League umpire goes viral for unique game-calling skills (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the video has 126,000 likes.<\/p>\n

Justin Ritchie, who posted the viral clip, said he recorded Sparks while at the game and initially meant to share it with his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here watching my son\u2019s game, and my wife wasn\u2019t here yet, so I was texting her and she was asking about the game and how our son was doing. I told her that he\u2019s not up yet, but this umpire, he\u2019s really killing it out there,\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n

Ritchie said he took a few videos of Sparks to show his wife, then decided to post one to social media. <\/p>\n

By the next day, he said, the response was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the next day, just the views and comments and messages I\u2019ve been getting from this kid, I was like – amazing!\u201d Ritchie said.<\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield Little League umpire goes viral for unique game-calling skills (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

Sparks said his approach on the field is about positioning and accuracy, especially when he is working alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why I run around the field is, since I\u2019m the only umpire on the field, I want to make sure I get the most accurate calls as possible,\u201d Sparks said.<\/p>\n

Sparks also said he met Ritchie after the video took off.<\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield Little League umpire goes viral for unique game-calling skills (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n

\u201cI went ahead and met Justin, and I just told him, hey this is me, thank you for getting my skills out there and showing everybody what I can do,\u201d Sparks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif (KBAK\/KBFX) Major league umpires have faced criticism this baseball season for missed balls and strikes, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-307221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}