THE FRONT ROW WITH GARRETT CABEZA: Saturday, July 25, 2015

Every August, Little League baseball takes up a lot of ESPN airtime.

This year, North Idaho area Little League players, coaches and parents tuning in can see a familiar umpire on the field at the Little League Baseball West and Northwest Regional tournaments (for ages 11-12) Aug. 9-15 in San Bernardino, Calif.

Frank Garcia, an Idaho District 1 umpire who lives in Coeur d'Alene, will umpire games at the tournaments next month.

"It's really a big deal and I'm fortunate to do it actually," said Garcia, 60, who has umpired in the Coeur d'Alene area for about 18 years.

GARCIA GREW up in Colton, Calif., which is about a 3.5-mile drive to San Bernardino.

"It caught me off guard, actually," Garcia said about the invitation to umpire the tournaments. "I've been anticipating it, but I've learned after all these years it's just tough to get that assignment, and it's easier in Idaho because we only have two districts. So we only have to compete against the umpires in District 2 (southern Idaho), but we alternate between District 1 (North Idaho) and District 2, and then we also alternate with one of the other states in the western region as far as the number of teams in districts that we have. Like California has 66 districts and we only have two districts. They send about four to six umpires and we send one like every other year."

District 1 umpires Brian Rounds and Torben Begines have umpired in San Bernardino previously and that Begines has umpired at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. Rounds is umpiring the Big League baseball West Regional tournament (ages 15-18), which started Monday and ends Saturday in Bremerton, Wash.

"When Torben first got here, if you can remember the old school days when umpires just got yelled at," Garcia said. "Kill the ump and the coaches wanted to kill them and the parents hated them and all that.

"Well, because of Torben and the board of directors, they established a culture of if you want umpires, you need to chill out," Garcia added. "You need to appreciate them. Then you establish a training program that helped improve the umpiring and recruit umpires and also educate coaches and other districts and leagues to try to replicate the process. So it was the groundwork for now what Brian does as he continues that process of the education of the umpires and the training and getting good umpires for Little League games."

BESIDES UMPIRING and working as a custodian at Coeur d'Alene High, Garcia keeps busy by participating in triathlons.

Garcia's son Derek, a Coeur d'Alene High grad, finished ninth overall in this year's Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

Frank signed up for the half-Ironman Coeur d'Alene next June. He has competed in Ironman Coeur d'Alene twice (2011 and 2014) and has competed in triathlons, marathons and other similar competitions since 2009.

Frank didn't participate in Ironman Coeur d'Alene this year. Instead, he was a volunteer for the event.

"I joked about it (doing Ironman Coeur d'Alene this year), but I didn't train for it knowing that I was going to San Bernardino," Frank said. "It was unique of course because of the hot weather."

If Frank had participated in Ironman Coeur d'Alene this year, he wouldn't have regretted doing it because of the hot weather.

Frank said he participated in the Coeur d'Fondo bicycle ride - a bike ride around Lake Coeur d'Alene held every year - one year in which the weather was horrible. Frank chose to do the Gran Fondo option of the Coeur d'Fondo - a 108-mile bike ride.

"It rained all day," Frank said. "By the time I got to Java on Fourth (Street), my shoes and clothes were completely soaked with water and I rode that way the whole way and it was kind of like a little badge of honor, because you get the Coeur d'Fondo medal, so to speak, but then you get a little stripe that says I did it in the worst weather ever. It would have been nice to say that I did Ironman. I have done Ironman in some crappy weather - cold, choppy water, real windy - but nothing like the temperature that we had, and it would have been nice to say, 'yeah, I did that. We did that Ironman together when it was 105 degrees or whatever.'"

It's a good thing that Frank can handle hot weather, because he is heading to southern California next month.

Garrett Cabeza is a sports intern for The Press. Contact him at gcabeza@cdapress.com.