Greene adds umpiring to his duties
As one of three minor-league coaches invited to summer camp to help the Milwaukee Brewers prepare for the truncated 2020 season, Charlie Greene was warned ahead of time he’d likely wear several different hats.
Working with the catchers was a nobrainer since that’s his area of expertise.
But since the team began playing intrasquad scrimmages on Wednesday, the focus of Greene’s role has shifted.
Oh, he’s still behind the plate. Only now he’s calling balls and strikes instead of catching them – a job Greene will continue to fill until Tuesday, when Major League Baseball begins dispatching regular umpires to camps with preparations for opening day ramping up in earnest.
“I was told I was going to be, I guess, the utility coach from Couns. That means everything,” Greene said Saturday. “I’ve (umpired) before in the minor leagues on camp days. But they told me I was doing it and they had the uniform up in my locker the first game, so I figured I’d be back there.”
Greene, 49, is one of the longer-tenured coaches in the organization, with this counting as his 15th season. He’s been a favorite of players for years and has been a guiding force in the development of Brewers backstops for years, most notably former homegrown allstar Jonathan Lucroy.
Before that, Greene had a cup of coffee in the major leagues as a catcher with 55 games spread over five seasons with four different organizations. In 1999, he saw action in 32 games with the Brewers before returning a few years later in a coaching capacity in the minors.
Had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, Greene would be in the midst of traveling between the Brewers’ complex in Maryvale and the team’s minorleague affiliates working with the next waves of catchers trying to move up the ladder.
But his life, like everyone else’s since March, was turned upside-down. Greene was at home in Tallahassee, Florida, keeping tabs on his younger charges via Zoom calls and such before receiving his marching orders to report to Miller Park for baseball’s two-month reboot.
“I’d just be hanging out at home waiting for something to happen, so I was glad to come up here for three weeks,” he said. “This is all uncharted waters for everybody. I don’t think anybody knew what was going to happen.”
Not surprisingly, Greene’s popularity among players has taken a hit since donning his umpire’s outfit for the scrimmages. And the fact that the giant scoreboard in center field has a live pitch tracker hasn’t helped his cause much, either.
A funny example of that came Friday, when Ben Gamel was rung up by Greene on a called third to end the game and Gamel pointed at the pitch’s location on the scoreboard – the tracker had it a tad inside – before heading back to the dugout.
With no fans in the stands and little ambient noise, the grief Greene has been getting has been audible and, yes, entertaining.
“Yeah, I got thrown into the fire,” Greene said with a laugh. “The big scoreboard in center field, you can’t miss it. I’ve been second-guessed by everybody. I get a report card every pitch.
“Contrary to popular belief I haven’t been using the board to call the games. I’m calling them on my own eyesight. I thought about waiting a second so then I would never be wrong, but that’s not what they want.”
Greene has also been entertaining from the standpoint his calls can be animated from time to time.
That , too, is by design.
“The strike calls, (bench coach Pat Murphy) said he wanted a little more and he’s been on me the whole time, so I gave him a little more,” Greene said. “But it’s a great view.”
Manager Craig Counsell gave Greene kudos for the job he’s done thus far.
“Charlie Greene’s been great,” he said. “He’s added a lot to these. He’s added a sense of realness to these games, I think, and done a great job.”
There probably is no one more qualified other than the four catchers in camp and the two bullpen catchers than Greene to weigh in on how Milwaukee’s pitching staff has looked thus far. What are his impressions?
“I see why I never hit – I wasn’t very good,” he said. “Thank God I don’t play today, because the velocity is big-time. I’m seeing 98 and I’m feeling unprotected – no mitt, no nothing. It’s a different view for me. These guys live on the corners, and it’s been fun to watch from back there.”
Once summer camp wraps up in Milwaukee, Greene said he’ll head back to Florida rather than up to Appleton to help at the team’s alternate training site. Two of the Brewers’ best catching prospects, Mario Feliciano and Thomas Dillard, have been invited and will take part in the workouts there.
“Once the games start I’m going home with the hope of having something in the fall in Phoenix,” Greene said. “That’s the plan, but that’s so far down the line. We’d like to have something for the kids because losing a year of development for guys is tough – for everybody. Everyone’s trying to get at-bats, innings.
“We’re trying to figure something out for the fall but a lot depends on MLB and health and Phoenix is spiking right now in cases. It’s a wait-and-see effort. It’s better to plan it and not have it than throw it together right at the last minute.”
If there winds up not being any additional work for minor-leaguers to do in the fall, Greene agreed that at least getting some of the Brewers’ best prospects together in Appleton will be beneficial.
“I don’t think there’s any blueprint to it. It’s going to be different,” he said. “I think they’re going to do it very similar to what they’re doing here – some practice, some intrasquad games. It’s going to be tough. Ten weeks. The staff there should do a great job with them.
“I think a lot of the guys are happy to be there – especially the younger guys and the older guys are staying ready to come (to Milwaukee) if needed. It’s going to be tricky. Who’d have ever thought we’d be doing this up in Appleton this summer? But I think they’ll make the most of it.”
Just as Greene has been making the most of being put in a foreign and somewhat difficult situation as home-plate umpire of late.
Could he see himself shifting gears at some point and doing it full-time?
“No chance. I enjoy what I do,” said Greene, who also holds the title of minor-league field coordinator. “It’s tough going back there.”