[PeteBooth]

Peter here's another reason why it's hard to keep Baseball umpires as opposed to officials in other sports.

Baseball is not a timed sport. You get paid lets say $50.00 for a 7 inning game whether it lasts 1 hr. 10 minutes or a marathon say 3 hrs. and change.

My friend is a football official and on a Saturday it's not all that uncommon for him to earn between $150.00 to $200.00 doing Pop Warner games. He can do 4 or 5 games as the games are all TIMED 1 hour each. Try umpiring 4 games in 90 - 95 degree heat.

Baskeball / Soccor officials - similiar to football, the games are timed. They can do 4 or 5 games on a Saturday / Sunday.

Therefore, if you put the umpire fee into an hourly rate calculation, the Baseball umpire isn't really earning all that much. After a couple of summers working in the heat, one can see the decline in umpires. Their answer - it's just not worth it.

In summary, I agree pay is a big part of the equation as Time goes by . Initially we are all "gung Ho" but that wears off.

Pete Booth