LEWISTON – He knew he was in his element behind the plate.

Three years as the varsity catcher at Lewiston High School taught Jim Taylor what he needed to know. He was used to having the equipment on, used to seeing a bat try to meet a ball up close.

Taylor thought umpiring wasn’t so hard when he started calling balls and strikes after a co-worker complained about the dearth of umpires in his son’s Little League.

Then he ventured 90 feet away from the plate, and suddenly he didn’t feel in his element anymore.

“I had my problems when I moved up and started going out to the bases,” Taylor said. “I’d never done the bases before. I had to learn, and I had to watch and ask a lot of questions about how do you get from here to there, and where are you supposed to be?”

Taylor figured it out pretty quickly, though, and became one of the most respected high school and collegiate umpires in the state during his 26-year career.

The Lewiston native will be one of five new inductees to the Auburn-Lewiston Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday. He said he is humbled by the honor and appreciates the recognition.

But the man who was taught that one of the most important aspects of good umpiring is to not be noticed is just as uncomfortable in the spotlight now as he was umpiring the bases all those years ago.

“He’s a pretty humble guy. He doesn’t like notoriety,” said Oxford Hills athletic director and current high school and collegiate umpire Jeff Benson.

Strike one

Not that Taylor hasn’t had time to get used to receiving accolades. He was an all-state football player at Lewiston, playing end, halfback, defensive back and returning kicks and punts, and along with Dick Collins, Paul Nadeau and Gary Hobbs, helped the Blue Devils win back-to-back state championships in 1963 and 1964. That same nucleus of athletes also won a then state-record 21 straight baseball games under Bob Flynn in 1964.

He says he probably wouldn’t be living in Maine today if Collins hadn’t lured his old Lewiston teammate into joining his football staff at Lewiston in 1978. He was an assistant coach there for five years and then served as Lewiston Middle School’s athletic director from 1983 to 1997. He also was an assistant football coach at Bates for five years. He runs into former players who still call him coach. So do their children.

After about five years umpiring Little League, Taylor got into the high school ranks. Then, in his 10th year, he started umpiring college baseball.

“College was hard to get into because certain umpires had certain colleges, and the coaches called the umpires to work. There was no assigning system,” he said.

He had a connection at Bates College, however, because his mother, Margaret Nichols, was the registrar there for more than 40 years, and Taylor spent many after-school hours hanging around Alumni Gymnasium. Baseball coach Chick Leahy gave him his start at that level, and soon other college coaches who had seen him work games during the summer were calling.

Taylor eventually helped start the Maine chapter of the Collegiate Baseball Umpires Association, which established a much-needed assigning system.

“The work that he did as secretary treasurer and as a go-between with the NCAA and the CBUA-New England was just immense,’ Benson said. “All of us that are working college ball today, we have to attribute anything that we have to the work that he did.”

“It just gave guys a chance to get to other places and be seen by more people and become better umpires,” Taylor said.

Making the call

When the John Winkin-led University of Maine teams of the 1980s hosted national powers such as Miami and Oklahoma State, Taylor was often one of the men in blue. His reputation as one of the best umpires in New England grew, and it wasn’t long before he was a veteran of college, high school and American Legion tournaments.

“When I was coaching baseball at Lisbon and I saw Jim come out onto the field, I knew the game was going to be managed and in control, and it was going to be fair and consistent,” Benson said. “As Harold (Lucas) taught him, if you’ve done a good job umpiring, nobody knows you were there. It was that way with Jim. His presence made the game run smooth.”

“He was the best non-professional umpire I ever worked with,” said Edward Little athletic director Dan Deshaies, a former minor league and current high school and collegiate umpire.

Taylor stressed consistency in technique and calling the strike zone. On the bases, being in the proper position to make the call was vital.

“You’ve got to see the call, take the picture and make the call,” Taylor said. “And you’ve got to keep your hands on your legs until you make the call. If your hands are flying all around, you’re going to get yourself in trouble, because they’re going to read your hands.”

He passed what he learned to another generation of umpires, many of whom continue to work in Maine.

“When I got into umpiring in 1990, he was the guy that taught me,” Benson said. “Anything that I’ve done umpiring today is certainly attributed to him.”

At 62 years old, Taylor is in great shape and looks like he could still umpire. He retired from umpiring 12 years ago, though, in part because of two knee surgeries, and also because he took a job at Bates as the head athletic equipment manager.

“I went back to the top of the college board, to the top of the high school board and said, ‘Where do you go now? There’s no place to go but downhill.’ I was thinking about doing one more year and then retiring before I had to have the good knee operated on. But, if I’d umpired one more year, I’d probably would have had the good knee done, and I’d be walking kind of funny right now.”

Feeling the heat

Taylor had his number, 33, retired by the Central Maine Board of Approved Baseball Umpires, one of three umpires so honored, along with Harold Lucas and Ernie Cobb. The board’s annual Umpire of the Year award is named after him.

He misses the camaraderie of his fellow umpires most, swapping stories, taking good-natured shots at one another. He recalled working one Legion tournament in Augusta on a sweltering summer afternoon where he was feeling the heat from all directions – from Bruce Lucas, who was then coaching the New Auburn Legion team, and from a fan who was riding him about his strike zone.

By the fifth inning, it was time for the 50-50 raffle drawing. As is still the tradition, the home plate umpire was asked to draw the winning ticket. Taylor reluctantly complied

“It’s 95 degrees and I’m about 115. I’ve had this argument with ‘Luke,'” Taylor recalled. “Seventh inning they announce the raffle winner, like $250, biggest winner they’ve had all tournament. Guess who wins it?”

Yes, his leather-lunged critic in the stands.

“I look out and my fellow umpires are all standing out there laughing their head off, because they know how mad I am, and they know I want to kill this guy,” Taylor said with a laughed. “He was long gone by the time I got out of the ballpark.”

Given his druthers, Taylor would like to similarly avoid being honored on Sunday. His first inclination was to decline induction.

“I was told I couldn’t,’ he said.

Soon enough, though, he can go back to not being noticed.

“At 10:30 Sunday,” he said, “the spotlight’s off.”