Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Steve “Kirky” Dittrich is stepping down from umpiring amateur baseball after 25 years. He will still officiate high school and Legion baseball games.

NEW ULM — After umpiring 25 years of amateur baseball, Steve “Kirky” Dittrich retired from umpiring amateur contests following the game between the Courtland Cubs and the Essig Bluejays on June 25.

“I have been thinking about this for a while,” said Dittrich, who will continue to umpire high school and Legion games. “It was important for me to get to 25 years in and if you look back at it, it went by pretty quick.”

Dittrich’s amateur umpiring career began when he got a phone call from another umpire, Wayne Cook, in 1993.

“I had umpired for three years in the middle 80s but I gave that up because I had a passion for golf,” he said. “So I golfed for a bunch of years before I started back up in 1993.

“When I started back umpiring I never thought that it would last 25 years. I just did it game by game.”

That decision to get back into umpiring led Dittrich on a journey that saw him get selected to umpire in 10 Minnesota State Amateur Baseball tournaments.

“When I did those [10 State Tournaments] I always felt that the [Minnesota State Amateur] Baseball Board supported me,” Dittrich said. “The New Ulm Amateur Baseball Board has been very supportive of me. And everybody in the Tomahawk [East League] has been supportive of me. When I walked into a ballpark I felt like they were genuinely happy to see me.”

Dittrich said that umpiring in 10 state tournaments was one of the highlights in his amateur career.

“In my second year of umpiring amateur baseball, I got chosen by our [Tomahawk East League] secretary,” he said. “Back then the leagues took care of a lot of it and I got the chance to do a state championship game in 1994 between Cold Spring and Jordan. It was an 11-inning game and I was behind the plate.”

Two years later, Dittrich umpired a game between Plato and Gaylord in Glencoe.

“It was an honor,” he said. “I have a lot of great memories.”

Overall, Dittrich has umpired 58 games in his 10 state tournaments.

And in his amateur career alone, Dittrich said that he has umpired in more than 600 games.

“And I think when you combine the high school and legion games it is well over 2,000,” he said.

Umpiring can be a stressful job at times especially in the amateur ranks and when it is late in the season and teams are in playoffs.

“You need to be thick-skinned,” he said. “You are dealing with adults and the level of play is higher. But people need to know that we are human too — we do make mistakes out there sometimes.”

He said that slowly winding down his umpiring duties is going to free him up to spend more time with family and friends who have been a key to him in his umpiring.

“My family has been real supportive of me,” Dittrich said. “If you do not have a strong support group in your family, it takes a lot of time away from them.”

While Dittrich will continue to umpire high school and Legion baseball as well as softball. But he said that he will miss the amateur game.

“I really want to thank the umpires that I worked with in amateur baseball,” he said. “I have made a lot of friends for life and umpired with a lot of great umpires.”

And the umpires who have worked with Dittrich will say the same thing.