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Ah,
"And MiLB umps could work HS games this year. Absolutely. At the same set contracted fee. Many I know keep up their HS and College memberships for fall ball and such. They'd just get first dibs. Your games."
Maybe in some areas. I identified quite clearly that they couldn't in "my area."
We have no MiLB umpires in either our high school or college groups. If we did they would get the same game schedule as all of us that have worked if we were "new" . . . many associations have "transfer rules" that require ANY umpire to work one year of JV games no matter who they are.
In Wisconsin, a state where umpires build their own schedules, most schools have signed contracts with umpires for games that won't be player until 2009!
In my group I would welcome any top level umpire. We are losing membership every year and we seem to get hurt at the top most often.
The model may one day more closely follow the system of the NFL where they hand select certain college (and in a very few cases high school officials) and train them in preseason.
For me this has been an interesting thread as I have tried to not become emotional on either side of the issue and just give a view of how business actually functions.
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