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Too Smart to be an Umpire
What do you do when your career aspiration is snatched away just as it’s about to be fulfilled? What happens when the dream you’ve pursued since childhood crashes and burns, leaving you broke at age 30?
You better have a damn good Plan B in place.
Jack Oujo spent eight years in the minor leagues pursuing the dream of becoming a major league umpire. This book takes you on his journey, from the decision to become an umpire, through the endless and often cramped travels, low pay, and interactions with players, managers and supervisory personnel, to his abrupt and callous release—by mail, no less.
What does someone do when their career vision becomes a nightmare? For Jack, this was no time for despondency. He was 30 years old, broke, and married with his first child on the way. He surmounted his disappointment and reinvented himself through a process of reeducation, mentorship, then starting a business on a bootstrap and ultimately growing it into a multi-million-dollar operation a decade later.
Jack Oujo CPA/PFS, CFP®, MS, is the founder of Oujo Wealth Strategies, one of the nation’s largest tax-focused wealth management firms. Jack’s journey to the top of his profession began, surprisingly enough, with an eight-year stint as a professional baseball umpire. He enjoyed numerous promotions, ultimately reaching the AAA level and winning the Joe Ryan Award as the highest-rated umpiring prospect in the minor leagues in 1985. Choosing umpires is subjective, however, and Jack was denied his ambition of becoming a major league umpire.
Undeterred, Jack used the setback as motivation for a successful business career. He had nurtured a Plan B while umpiring by working as an accountant in New York during the offseasons. This helped him make a seamless transition into the financial services industry, where he earned the Avantax Top Producer Award for 25 consecutive years and has been the brokerage’s leading advisor for the majority of the past decade.
Jack attended Old Bridge High School and was inducted into their Wall of Fame in 2013. He graduated from Middlesex County College with an associate degree in accounting, Seton Hall University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and he went on to earn a master’s degree in taxation from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
His community service includes running a free youth umpire clinic every February for the last twenty years. Jack was also president of the NJ/NY Chapter of the College Baseball Umpires Association (CBUA) and the freshman baseball coach at St. Rose High School in Belmar, NJ, for several years.
Jack maintained a connection to baseball, playing in the United States Over 30 Baseball League and Men’s Senior Baseball League (MSBL) for 19 years, playing in multiple all-star games.
After retiring from baseball, Jack acquired an addiction to golf and is an active member of the Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Spring Lake Golf Club in Spring Lake, New Jersey.
You better have a damn good Plan B in place.
Jack Oujo spent eight years in the minor leagues pursuing the dream of becoming a major league umpire. This book takes you on his journey, from the decision to become an umpire, through the endless and often cramped travels, low pay, and interactions with players, managers and supervisory personnel, to his abrupt and callous release—by mail, no less.
What does someone do when their career vision becomes a nightmare? For Jack, this was no time for despondency. He was 30 years old, broke, and married with his first child on the way. He surmounted his disappointment and reinvented himself through a process of reeducation, mentorship, then starting a business on a bootstrap and ultimately growing it into a multi-million-dollar operation a decade later.
Jack Oujo CPA/PFS, CFP®, MS, is the founder of Oujo Wealth Strategies, one of the nation’s largest tax-focused wealth management firms. Jack’s journey to the top of his profession began, surprisingly enough, with an eight-year stint as a professional baseball umpire. He enjoyed numerous promotions, ultimately reaching the AAA level and winning the Joe Ryan Award as the highest-rated umpiring prospect in the minor leagues in 1985. Choosing umpires is subjective, however, and Jack was denied his ambition of becoming a major league umpire.
Undeterred, Jack used the setback as motivation for a successful business career. He had nurtured a Plan B while umpiring by working as an accountant in New York during the offseasons. This helped him make a seamless transition into the financial services industry, where he earned the Avantax Top Producer Award for 25 consecutive years and has been the brokerage’s leading advisor for the majority of the past decade.
Jack attended Old Bridge High School and was inducted into their Wall of Fame in 2013. He graduated from Middlesex County College with an associate degree in accounting, Seton Hall University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and he went on to earn a master’s degree in taxation from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
His community service includes running a free youth umpire clinic every February for the last twenty years. Jack was also president of the NJ/NY Chapter of the College Baseball Umpires Association (CBUA) and the freshman baseball coach at St. Rose High School in Belmar, NJ, for several years.
Jack maintained a connection to baseball, playing in the United States Over 30 Baseball League and Men’s Senior Baseball League (MSBL) for 19 years, playing in multiple all-star games.
After retiring from baseball, Jack acquired an addiction to golf and is an active member of the Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Spring Lake Golf Club in Spring Lake, New Jersey.
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 18, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 9, 2025
A Life Rewritten Beyond the Game...
Too Smart to Be an Umpire immerses you in Jack Oujo's intricate journey, transitioning from minor league dugouts to the formal corridors of money management. His narratives resonate with authenticity, rich in winding back roads, confined clubhouses, and those visceral, unanticipated moments that render baseball significant. You occupy the passenger seat, experiencing the exhilaration of pursuing something of paramount importance, followed by the profound silence when it abruptly vanishes.
What really stays with you is the way Oujo doesn't just survive the fall—he builds something entirely new from it. Watching him go from flat broke and reeling to carving out a whole second act in finance, there's something quietly powerful in that. It's proof that resilience isn't always loud or dramatic. Sometimes it's just showing up, recalibrating, and finding your footing again.
The book moves fast, hits hard, and somehow manages to be tender without getting sentimental. Whether you're a baseball lifer or just someone who's had to tear up the script and start over, this one finds you where you are. Highly recommended.
Too Smart to Be an Umpire immerses you in Jack Oujo's intricate journey, transitioning from minor league dugouts to the formal corridors of money management. His narratives resonate with authenticity, rich in winding back roads, confined clubhouses, and those visceral, unanticipated moments that render baseball significant. You occupy the passenger seat, experiencing the exhilaration of pursuing something of paramount importance, followed by the profound silence when it abruptly vanishes.
What really stays with you is the way Oujo doesn't just survive the fall—he builds something entirely new from it. Watching him go from flat broke and reeling to carving out a whole second act in finance, there's something quietly powerful in that. It's proof that resilience isn't always loud or dramatic. Sometimes it's just showing up, recalibrating, and finding your footing again.
The book moves fast, hits hard, and somehow manages to be tender without getting sentimental. Whether you're a baseball lifer or just someone who's had to tear up the script and start over, this one finds you where you are. Highly recommended.
January 18, 2026
According to Good Reads, I read 40 books in 2025 and this is among my favorites. Full disclosure: the author is my brother so there is some bias--but books mean too much to me to write anything but the unvarnished truth. "Too Smart to Be an Umpire" is unlike any book I've ever read. Coming from the viewpoint of a young man pursuing his dream to become a professional umpire...to running a multi-million dollar financial services firm, it's funny, humble and moving--the kind of story that pulls you in whether you're there for baseball, business or just a great underdog comeback.
If you love baseball, this is for you.
If you love business, this is for you.
And if you love the Disney--esque genre of "anyone who chased a dream that didn't come true and found the resilience to find a second dream," this book is for you.
If you love baseball, this is for you.
If you love business, this is for you.
And if you love the Disney--esque genre of "anyone who chased a dream that didn't come true and found the resilience to find a second dream," this book is for you.
November 4, 2025
I recently finished Too Smart to Be an Umpire by Jack Oujo, and I absolutely loved it. Jack’s writing is genuine, engaging, and filled with the kind of wisdom that only comes from real experience. The book is not just about umpiring—it’s about character, integrity, and staying true to yourself no matter the circumstances.
I found it both entertaining and deeply inspiring. Jack has a gift for turning everyday stories into meaningful lessons that stick with you long after you’ve put the book down. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys thoughtful, uplifting, and well-told life stories.
I found it both entertaining and deeply inspiring. Jack has a gift for turning everyday stories into meaningful lessons that stick with you long after you’ve put the book down. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys thoughtful, uplifting, and well-told life stories.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews