Like most sport officials, the bond that binds the fraternity of baseball, fastball and slo-pitch umpires is a tight one.

With no less than three local individuals representing the men and women in blue (though they weren’t - they actually wear red) at the recent SPN (Slo Pitch National) National Championships in Brampton, the link was even stronger, a shared pride of their hometown providing a common ground on which the highly qualified trio would stand.

All of that said, there is something just a little bit more special with the connection that Julie and Travis Babe share when they set foot, together, on the diamond.

A year ago, the local couple joined long-time Sudbury face of slo-pitch Shawn Bomhower in working their first set of national slo-pitch championships. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, they were the first husband and wife team to handle the task in tandem.

With all three back for another crack at the country-wide gathering of slo-pitch talent earlier this month, the Babes became the first spousal pair to umpire a gold medal encounter, overseeing a women’s matchup between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

While that distinction is clearly meaningful to the Valley East residents who actually met while playing together on a coed slo-pitch team, it is more the shared approach to their roles that opens the door to the opportunities that Travis and Julie and Shawn have enjoyed.

“When I am doing a Ladies Division “D” game, I treat it like it’s Men’s Division “A”,” said Travis, a talent within the hardball circuit as a youth, initially, before coaching and competing in slo-pitch later in life. “You need to be on the ball.”

“As a player, I know what I expected from the umpire when I was on the field. You want that umpire to be right into the game, to love what he’s doing. That’s my mentality too.”

Whether it’s displayed in the hustle to get out from beside the plate to get a closer look at a bang-bang play at third base or it’s making the call in such a way that players understand clearly what you have seen – “out on the tag at third”, for instance – the sense of pride in doing a good job, in making the right call, resonates with all three.

And for as much as the very nature of being a sports official means that you will hear far more from those who disagree with your calls than from those who approve of them, the rarity that is earning praise provides a cherished moment indeed.

“You are always going to have 12 people against you and 12 people for you,” said Travis with a laugh. “But it’s such a great feeling when you are doing teams that you don’t know and at the end of the game, they’re telling you: great job!”

For Shawn Bomhower, the journey to nationals, as an umpire, is one that has spanned almost three decades. Having shed some weight last summer, he felt inspired to join the Babes in throwing their hat into the ring for a chance to work SPN nationals in Barrie.

For those who know the trio well, and that would be the majority of the hundreds who play slo-pitch in Sudbury and area, the results were hardly surprising. Their devotion to their craft came through look and clear, earning the appreciation of both athletes and fellow umpires.

As is the case with pretty much any sport, officiating excellence goes far beyond a througout understanding of the rules of the game and the ability to make split-second decisions that jive with what truly transpired before your eyes.

“You’ve got to be a people person,” said Travis. “You have to know how to diffuse a situation.”

It doesn’t always play out that way. Sports can easily become emotional, even at levels where one would suggest there really is not all that much on the line, in the grand scheme of things. Ironically, earning assignments that are further and further up that ladder of elite competition can, at times, make your job easier.

“You tend to get more respect when you are doing higher levels, so that when you do make a mistake, players allow you to admit it and move on,” said Julie. The truth is that none of these three profess to be perfect. Human fallability is innate.

But it’s the fact that they care so much about getting it right, far, far more often than not, that sets them apart.

“I’ve messaged players the next day to apologize if I went over the edge or if I got the call wrong,” said Travis.

And that is the stuff that national championship officials are made of.