Sports Editor

Bud Larsen’s cross-country odyssey as a professional baseball umpire has veered northeast.

Larsen, a former Tomah High School baseball standout and son of Ken and Sandy Larsen, has gotten the call to umpire in the New York-Penn League for the 2008 season.

The Class A short-summer league begins play June 17.

Larsen umpired in the Arizona Rookie League last season. This year, he’ll move up to a league with lots of tradition. The New York-Penn League dates back to 1939.

“Everybody I talked to thought I was going to the Northwest League,” Larsen said. “As soon as I heard I was going to the New York-Penn League, I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s double the teams (14) as the other leagues, and you don’t see the same teams over and over again. It’s definitely a step up from rookie ball.”

The league consists of players who have already played one year of rookie ball or players with considerable college experience.

His geographic relocation means he’ll see very few of the players he umpired in the Arizona Rookie League.

“I’ll be meeting a whole new group of people,” Larsen said.

Since March, Larsen has been busy umpiring extended spring training in Arizona. He began the season in Phoenix before moving to Tucson and umpiring games involving prospects from the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox.

Larsen is looking forward to seeing a whole new region of the country.

“It’s not going to be 110 degrees like it was last year,” he said. “It will be first trip to New York City. I want to see the Empire State Building, Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty. I’m going to take my time and take everything in.”