# Umpy

> Everything an umpire carries in their head, their glovebox, and four different group chats — assignments, rulesets, availability, crew comms, and on-field counters — consolidated into one app for slo-pitch and baseball officials.

Canonical: https://blacktiecollab.com/portfolio/umpy

Everything an umpire carries in their head, their glovebox, and four different group chats — assignments, rulesets, availability, crew comms, and on-field counters — consolidated into one app for slo-pitch and baseball officials.

| Fact | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Type | Our product |
| Category | Sports Officiating App |
| Year | 2026 |
| Site | https://umpy.ca/?utm_source=blacktiecollab&utm_medium=crosspromo&utm_campaign=portfolio&utm_content=umpy |

- Platforms (iOS & Android): 2
- Tool Suites: 6
- Crew & Event Support: Multi

## The Challenge

Umpire coordination runs on group texts. A UIC posts a schedule, chases availability by message, and reconciles who accepted what by scrolling back through a chat. Umpires track their own games and earnings in a notes app. Rulesets live in PDFs that differ by event and cannot be searched from behind the plate.

Generic scheduling tools do not fix this, because officiating has requirements they do not model — crews, events with different rulesets, availability with reasons and time ranges, and on-field needs that have nothing to do with a calendar.

## Our Approach

### 1. Built around the crew, not the calendar

An umpire belongs to multiple crews and events at once, each with its own ruleset, announcements, and chat. The data model starts there rather than treating an official as a single resource on a schedule.

### 2. Made availability push, not pull

Umpires mark unavailability on a calendar with reasons, time ranges, and notes. The UIC sees it instantly. That single change removes most of the back-and-forth texting that assignment coordination usually generates.

### 3. Put the on-field tools in the same app

A ball-strike-out clicker with haptic feedback and automatic inning tracking, plus a coin flipper for home team decisions. Small things, but they are the reason the app is already open when an announcement lands.

## What It Does

### Assignments with earnings tracking (Core)

View upcoming games, accept or decline assignments from the UIC, and track earnings and payments in one place. Personal games can be added alongside assigned ones so the season record is complete.

### Searchable rulesets with private notes (On-Field)

Quick-reference rule grids per crew and event, with a built-in PDF viewer that supports search, custom rulesets, and private notes attached to individual rules. Rule differences between events stop being something you have to remember.

### Crew chat and priority announcements (Comms)

Real-time chat rooms for every crew and event, with @everyone mentions and message moderation. Announcements are priority-sorted with read/unread tracking and badge counts, so important news is not buried under scheduling chatter.

### On-field clicker and coin flipper (Utility)

Balls, strikes, and outs with haptic feedback and automatic inning tracking. It is the feature that gets the app opened every game, which is what makes the rest of it useful.

## Product Snapshot

| Result | Value | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Native App | iOS | Available on the App Store |
| Native App | Android | Available on Google Play |
| Tool Suites | 6 | Assignments, rulesets, announcements, availability, chat, on-field |
| Integrated | SPC | Powered by Slo-Pitch Central |

### Key Takeaways

- Purpose-built beats general-purpose when the domain has structure a generic tool cannot express
- A small daily-use utility is what earns the right to own the bigger workflow
- Turning availability from a request into a broadcast eliminates most coordination overhead
- Officiating is an underserved software market sitting right beside league management

## Related work

- [Slo-Pitch Central](https://blacktiecollab.com/portfolio/slopitchcentral): League Management Platform
- [Slo-Pitch National](https://blacktiecollab.com/portfolio/slo-pitch-national): Sports League Platform
- [Canadian Adult Sports Directory](https://blacktiecollab.com/portfolio/canadian-adult-sports): National Sports Directory