Paul Lucero Jr. just got back from a trip, but there’s one more outing left.

    Lucero traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y., to umpire games in the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament. A local youth baseball team, the Idaho Scrappers, invited the six-year veteran referee.

    The week-long tournament at the end of July had 104 teams from Maine to California, and took place on 22 fields organized into one complex called Cooperstown Dreams Park, a fitting name because it had been Lucero’s fantasy as a kid to end up in Cooperstown.

    As a young ball player who graduated from Aberdeen High School, Lucero, 59, assumed he’d glide into Cooperstown for the first time to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame.

    Raised by his grandmother, Lucero always had a local blacksmith from Springville watch his games. That blacksmith was the first person Lucero thought of when the Scrappers invited him to travel to New York.

    “I’m going to go to his grave and tell him, ‘I did make it to Cooperstown. Not as a player, as an umpire,’” Lucero said.

    Scrappers head coach Angel Aguinaga has been to the tournament in Cooperstown in 2007 and 2010. Each year, every team attending is asked to suggest an umpire to bring along.

    Aguinaga knew Lucero through the countless number of games he’s worked at Cotant Park in Chubbuck.

    “You want an umpire that’s passionate and loves the game,” Aguinaga said. “The guy has a passion for the game. He’s so positive.”

    When Aguinaga asked about traveling east to New York, Lucero immediately said yes. Three months before the tournament, he’d filled out all the necessary paperwork. A month later, Lucero had his plane ticket and rental car lined up. He could not wait.

    “The feeling of driving through the gate at the Dream Park, it was — I got goosebumps,” Lucero said.

    At such large tournaments, first-time umpires are usually restricted to working games from the first-base line, at least until they prove themselves.

    But Lucero’s infectious enthusiasm caught the eye of his crew chief, and by the third game, he was squatting behind home plate.

    And if there’s one thing Lucero does more than anything else to stand out from his contemporaries, it’s the way he calls a game. When a pitcher slings a strike, Lucero does not simply signal a strike by pointing and mouthing “Strike.” He bellows it. He screams, “Strike!”

    “I can remember watching it on TV when Yogi (Berra) and Mickey Mantle played,” Lucero said. “I can remember umpires being loud, and I thought that’s the way a game is. It makes it exciting, and that’s what I wanted, to have the game exciting.”

    It’s been a rapid rise for Lucero since he became a referee six years ago with the hopes that his son, not exactly a baseball fan, would fall for the game because he’d follow dad to the ballpark.

    Turns out that dad is the one who’s been pulled into baseball more than he ever imagined. He’s developed a reputation as a guy — whether it’s baseball in the summer, fall football or basketball in the winter — who shows up prepared.

    Brian Howell has worked with Lucero since he began.

    “He’s a very good umpire,” Howell said. “His mechanics are good. His presentation on the field is good. He’s knowledgeable. As strange as this may sound, he looks good on the field, which really has a lot of bearing because if you look professional, people assume you are.”

    Lucero’s dedication to the craft and his willingness to prepare might come from his stint in the U.S. Marines from 1971-75. Or perhaps he takes it seriously because he remembers his own playing days, and he would have never wanted a lazy hack for an umpire.

    And if those are not enough reasons, Lucero’s commitment and zeal for refereeing could directly result to how all umpires and referees are viewed by fans — make the correct call or suffer never-ending verbal abuse.

    “I take it seriously because it all boils down to this: It’s all about the kids,” Lucero said.

    Every umpire who reaches Cooperstown is inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s a milestone for Lucero, but hardly a stopping point. So, what’s next?

    “Whatever he wants,” Howell said. “... He can’t stop now.”