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Watch over-the-top umpire put on a show while calling third strikes

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No matter what level of baseball or softball you might play, striking out stinks.

Having the umpire yell some catchphrase while doing a spirited dance afterward would probably make it a lot worse.

Well, maybe not. Check out the video above, posted on YouTube earlier this week by Westfield, N.J., adult league player Jeff Bendix. Even if you just humiliated yourself in front of family and friends, you’ve got to at least chuckle at something like that, right?

“People are laughing the entire time,” Bendix told myCentralJersey.com. “I’m out there to have fun and he’s having more fun. That’s how I take it, how our team takes it and how the other team takes it.”

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The over-the-top umpire is 47-year-old Edward Reed of Newark -- better known as Eddie the Ump. A former high school athlete, Reed has been umpiring for scholastic, collegiate and men’s league games for about 10 years.

But he saves the showmanship only for the adult games -- and only when they give him permission before the game.

“I don’t do kids like that,” Reed said. “If anybody is offended by it, I won’t do it.”

Amateur Baseball Assn. President Jason Pritchard said the response to Reed is “overwhelmingly positive,” although, he added, “there’s times when Eddie can rub you the wrong way and there’s definitely been people that have come to me and said ‘I need a little break from Eddie.’”

Any extra-sensitive types like that are missing out on some great performances. In the now-viral video, Reed yells the phrases “2 Chainz!” “Gangnum style!” and “And he closes the show like the champion he is!”

He’s also been known to pull out such gems as “Mama said knock you out,” “Who let the dogs out?” and “Whoomp! There it is,” as well as some lyrics to the theme songs from the TV shows “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times.”

He even takes requests.

“These games could be dragged out,” Reed said. “It’s so hot out there. At times, you’ve got to [provide] these guys with some kind of entertainment.”

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