TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
sophomore year of high school. I was at a game, and I asked the guy who was over the league if I could start umpiring. I umpired my first game at 15 years old at first base, and I blew a call in the second inning,” he recalled. “A ball hit on the line, and I called it foul.” For many teenagers, the pressure and intensity of the game and the public scrutiny of making a bad call may have been intimidating, but Chapman used the moment to develop confidence and learn from his mistake. “Everyone was yelling and upset, and I realized, ‘This isn’t so bad, and I survived.’ I knew after that I could handle it.” The key to his success as a young umpire was being willing to make the tough calls and stand behind them. “Back then I had pretty thick skin, and I kicked a lot of coaches out as a young umpire. They knew they could only go so far, and I wouldn’t be intimidated. I would throw them out even as a teenager. They weren’t going to run over me. I was doing the best I could do. Of course, I missed calls. I know I did. And my strike zone wasn’t that great. They even called me ‘shoestrings’ for a while because I liked the low pitch. But I adapted and got better.” 25 years have now passed since Chapman got his start as an umpire, and he has watched an entire generation of ball players come and go and return as fathers and coaches of their very own little leaguers. Time marches on and, thankfully, so does baseball.
A business-as-usual type of umpiring doesn’t normally draw the attention of crowds, but of course, business as usual has never really been Chapman’s style. Long before The Savannah Bananas showed up on the scene, the baseball fans of Texarkana had taken notice of “The Dancing Umpire,” as he was affectionately referred to, and he has long been a crowd favorite. “I’ve been dancing my whole life,” Chapman said. “At fifth and sixth-grade dances, I would be the only one on the dance floor while everyone else was over by the punch bowl. I’ve always loved to dance because I love to make people laugh and have a good time, so I’ve been doing it since I was little. At some point, parents started bringing those old coolers with built-in radios to their kid’s ball games and that’s all it took to get me grooving between innings. The kids started laughing and having fun with it and would get their phones out and record; it brought a little more enjoyment to the games. It would break the monotony and stress of parents, coaches, and teammates yelling at you and it would remind everyone it’s a game! It’s supposed to be fun.” It is that outlook that made the Savannah Bananas the obvious next step for this Dancing Umpire. The Bananas are all about the fun and the fans. “Two words… ‘Fans First,’” Chapman said. “We are all about making the fan’s experience unforgettable.” The games are not scripted, and the players are very competitive, so for two
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