A goal of any baseball or softball player is to make it to a World Series, even on the Little League level.

Even umpires have that dream and Dave Rodgers is fulfilling that dream this week.

The 59-year-old Oskaloosan will be one of a dozen umpires at this year’s Little League Junior Softball World Series, currently under way in Kirkland, Wash.

The 10-team tournament for 13-to-15-year-olds began Sunday and concludes on Saturday with the championship game being televised live on ESPNU.

Rodgers, who has been an umpire since 1975, was “shocked” when he got word he’ll be an umpire in the Junior League Junior World Series.

“I’ve been involved with Little League since I was a kid and I was either coaching or umpiring then pretty soon I was umpiring all the time because I enjoyed it,” he said. “One day, Frank Schuring came to me and he said ‘I’m getting too old for this and here’s my counter.’ He hands it to me and I said ‘Wow.’ He was like everybody’s idol back then. He was always going someplace and doing something. 

“People have asked me how can I put up with all this stuff? I enjoy what I do. Sometimes it’s not real fun and it depends on the coaches and parents. To be a World Series umpire, you have to have done local districts, sectionals before state, state and then regionals.

“Frank was my mentor and he meant a lot.”

Rodgers traveled to Akron, Ohio, last year for a regional tournament and he said umpires have to regional tournaments and be recommended before they have an opportunity to do a World Series.

Rodgers submitted an application and District 4 administrator Kevin Hladik signed the paper and he got three other names on it, sent it in late last year. Rodgers received a letter in December that he was accepted as a World Series umpire.

“It’s something I always wanted to do, a World Series,” he said. “The maximum you can do is two World Series. A friend from South Bend. Ind., called me and congratulated me on being an umpire out there, I asked him what he’ll be doing and he said he’ll be an umpire in the Senior League World Series in Delaware.”

There are four divisions in both boys and girls — Big League, Senior League, Juniors and Majors — and only 12 umpires are chosen in each of the four divisions.

Rodgers not only umpires in Little League, but also does some high school games as well in the area. He hopes to be an umpire for a lot of years to come, quitting only when “I can’t do it anymore.”

“It keeps me active and I’m out doing something,” he said. “When you get done with a game, it’s an accomplishment and I go back over the game and reassess the calls. ‘What can I do better and was that the correct call? Is that something I have to work on?’” 

He added he would love to umpire in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., but he said it could take a while to get there since there’s a list of people who put in for it. “It may take a few years because there are a lot of people who want to go there and umpire,” Rodgers said.