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July 27 - August 2, 2003 |
John Marshall Alum Has His Eye on Career Behind the Plate
In the world of baseball, all eyes are on the ball—especially those of umpire Dan Bellino.
After weeks of intensive training, Bellino now is making the calls behind the plate, watching the foul line or determining that stolen base at third for Major League Baseball's Single A teams in the New York-Penn League.
Bellino loves baseball. He'd been a catcher for the high school team at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. At Northern Illinois University he switched sports and was a member of the basketball team. But Bellino says it wasn't playing the game that held his interest.
"I always wanted to officiate either basketball or baseball. I'd umpire college and high school games," he remembers.
Sports didn't dominate his life. He graduated from NIU and went on to The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He's still going to school finishing the last two courses for an MBA from Dominican University, and a few additional courses for a specialty law degree in intellectual property from John Marshall.
Yet Bellino always dreamed that maybe some day he would be out on the diamond calling the shots. In fall 2002, he received notice of his acceptance to the Harry Wendelstedt School for Umpires in Daytona Beach, Fla.
He graduated law school a semester early, and went back to his high school coach, Ray Delfava, who arranged for Bellino to get in some indoor practice games before he started five weeks of intensive training at Wendelstedt in the art and skill of umpiring baseball.
"People watching the game might think they can make the call, but umpire training was so thorough. The staff at the Wendelstedt School has some of the greatest umpires at every level of professional baseball. Throughout my career, I will always be grateful to Harry Wendelstedt for giving me this extraordinary opportunity," Bellino says.
"You can't imagine what you're in for until you get there. I learned everything from the use of an illegal bat to how to handle myself in a city," he explains. "You really do learn more about baseball than you can ever imagine."
What about those times when a coach is screaming in your face and gets ejected? Bellino says he and his fellow umpires try to keep ejection to the barest minimum "because it means paperwork after the game" and it will lead to a review by the supervisors from the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation.
Bellino knows a catcher can be an umpire's best friend because he usually takes the hard hits. Just the same, Bellino is a firm believer in protective gear.
"I've taken foul balls off the chest and off the face mask. The most painful one was a ball deflected from the catcher that hit me in the thigh," he remembers.
Today Bellino is in the middle of a 10-week, 76-game rotation with the New York-Penn League traveling to minor league team games throughout New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
"Things are going better than expected. Although it is difficult to spend so much time away from home, I'm working games in some beautiful stadiums with so much history," he says.
Throughout these weeks, Bellino is being watched by seven evaluators who will rank him against the other Single A umpires at his level. After that, Bellino hopes to be promoted move to the six-month, 140-game season in either the Midwest League or the South Atlantic League. His placement will be based upon his rank in the class of 41 candidates.
Bellino, of Carpentersville, hopes he makes the cut. Eventually, he would like to use his law and business administration degrees and umpiring skills.
"If I don't make it to the major leagues as an umpire, then what I'm hoping to do is create a career in professional sports," he says optimistically. "I hope I'll be especially marketable because of my law degree, my MBA and my knowledge of the game. There are so many options in the baseball industry, from player rep to being part of major league ball's office staff.
For now, though, Bellino is working at realizing his dream, making it to the major leagues, and one day "getting to work before my family and friends at Wrigley Field."
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Schedule of Events
July 30
- International Trade Club of Chicago Reception, Room 1200B, 5:00 p.m.
- After The Bar Party, Room 3East, 5:15 p.m.
August 1
- Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee Meeting, Room 1101, 12:00 p.m.
A complete online listing of events scheduled at The John Marshall Law School can be found at the following URL: http://www.jmls.edu/calendar.htm
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Contents
Other LinksReturn to The John Marshall Law School Home Page
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Faculty Activity and Publications
Professor Michael P. Seng
Activities
On June 28, he spoke at the annual international conference of the Czech/Slovak Society of Arts and Sciences at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He spoke about the scholarship activities of immigrant groups in the United States to foster higher education in their communities. Professor Seng is on the Board of Trustees of the Council of Higher Education, which awards scholarships to American and Canadian students of Czech and Slovak Ancestry.
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Fair Housing Center/Clinic
Staff members RoseMarie Knight and Elaine Morey and Adjunct Clinical Professor Lewis Powell III took turns representing The John Marshall Fair Housing Legal Support Center and Clinic at the Access Chicago program, Chicago's official celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, at Navy Pier on July 16. The event is organized and sponsored by the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, which aims to make Chicago a more accessible city for persons with disabilities. Approximately 122 companies, organizations and agencies took part in this program designed to recognize the diverse needs of this protected minority group, one of the fastest growing populations in the country. Many people stopped by the John Marshall booth to inquire about their legal rights and the services provided by John Marshall.
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Professor Joins Human Rights Commission
Professor Walter Kendall III (second from left) is congratulated on his being named a member of the Commission on Human Rights of Cook County. Welcoming Professor Kendall at his swearing-in ceremony earlier this month were (from left) Cook County Commissioner Anthony Peraica (J.D. '83); Jennifer Vidas, executive director of the Commission on Human Rights; and Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin. Kendall was appointed to a three-year term.
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John Marshall Assists Czech Lawyers With Technological Connections
As part of The John Marshall Law School's working agreements with law schools and attorneys in the Czech Republic, Professor Michael Seng, Professor Robert Nye, Doug Sanders and Michael Kerwin and staff in the law school's Media Services Department welcomed two Czech attorneys to Chicago. Together they worked at establishing video links between John Marshall and European institutions. Several successful long distance learning experiments were conducted between John Marshall and the Economics University during their visit.
For more than ten years, John Marshall has been taking a delegation of attorneys and judges to the Czech Republic for weeklong training programs for Czech attorneys. The seminars on the American Legal System may now be offered to a wider audience through teleconferencing. The video link may also make it easier for John Marshall to expand its course content by inviting speakers to the law school, rather than expecting them to travel to Europe.
One of the Czech guests was Radovan Kacin who has been acting as the coordinator for John Marshall's educational programs in the Czech Republic. He is an instructor in economics and information technology at the Economics University in Prague. Tomas Ricka, an attorney with the City of Prague Legal Office, joined Kacin. The law school also has a formal sister school agreement with the Faculty of Law at Masaryk in Brno, and has now signed a similar agreement to work with the University of Economics in Prague.
Professor Seng has been awarded a Fulbright grant to work with the Economics University to develop programs in American law and particularly in the areas of intellectual property and information technology law. He taught a course on the American Legal System and American Constitutional Law at the Economics University during the fall 2002 semester and will teach the courses again this November.