SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The pinnacle for little league baseball players is to one day play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
That also happens to be the goal for a number of little league umpires, like Poway's Dave Miller, who has been umpiring little league games for 18 years.
"I love umpiring. I think that everybody deserves a fair game, the players, the coaches, the parents. The one thing I enjoy about little league is the innocence, as it's just young kids having fun."
However, it isn't just the kids who are having fun. Dave has umpired over 1,100 games and just loves calling balls and strikes.
"I've always been a pitchers umpire as both of my kids were pitchers in high school and college. My nickname is "Painting Corners" because I give pitcher's the corners if they are hitting them. I want the kids to go up swinging the bats."
Little league players have dreams of one-day becoming big league ball players, and Dave will tell you his dream was to umpire at the Little League World Series. Well, as they say, dreams do come true, as he was chosen out of a group of 4,000 names as 1 of 16 umpires heading to Williamsport in August.
"It was a long time coming. I always said working the world series has never been my reason for umpiring, but it has always been my goal."
Dave calls it an honor to go to Williamsport, where he will get the chance to umpire 15 games.
"I know it's going to be a big stage with games on ESPN and kids from all over the world. It's going to be great, but I want to focus on what I'm supposed to do. I want to get together with my crew and make sure we are successful on the field.
