[WhatWuzThatBlue]

I have no choice but to answer these things point for point:

Originally posted by dontcallmeblue
What % do they get. Let's look at it.

MiLB umpire. Rookie ball. $1800/mo. 3 months $5400. Divide that by the starting big league salary of aprox. $115k. hmmm. Can you say 4%? It goes up slightly from there, but those hardly look like apprentice wages to me.

Yes, it does - you are asking for a union apprenticeship wage. Plenty of apprentices work in kitchens, construction sites, offices and schools for pitances. Why should a Rookie ball umpire with no seasoning get paid anything close to what the top 1% of all umpires make? You make me laugh.

I suppose you think that a kid signed straight out of high school to a developmental league should receive a large portion of the MLB minimum? That makes as much sense.

Have you not read the posts and talked to the people? While some would get blackballed from college ball for turning back games to do MiLB games, others (most?) would be blackballed from NCAA for scabbing at all, which makes it not worth the risk. You didn't earn your spot.

Pretend to know what you are talking about. Plenty of NCAA umpires are ex-MiLB guys who got shafted. They would happily cross that line and take the extra coin. Some will do it because they pine for the chance to prove themselves and others will just be happy to work that level of ball again. You are fantasizing if you think that the guys who were asked to step aside care about the newbies.

It's not the calls they blow, it's how they handle them.

Do you think before you write? Of course it's the call they blow. That sets off the chain of response. I've seen guys make great calls but then lose it when the skipper comes out to bark. Those guys worked with me in the Minors.

And you can't fire members of a recognized union without a contract either, that's not bargaining in good faith - looks like they're in a pretty good spot to me. If this ever went before binding independent arbitration, MiLB would be in trouble.

They AREN'T being fired. If they choose to walk away, which they voted to do, they are abandoning their careers. If you didn't show up for work after your contract ran out, your boss has the right to replace you. Sorry, but I've been on both sides of those contracts.

MiLB is not worried about arbitration. They have long argued that they pay what the market bears. The schools are full of applicants for those jobs, regardless of salary. They must know something you don't. I imagine that's a long list.

"Their dream will end because they will be blackballed. Look how MLB treats some of their veterans who walked out."

Get your facts straight. MLB guys walked out against a contract that had not expired and violated a no-strike clause. MiLB guys don't have a contract.

That's right, they don't. So if they walk out, they are turning their backs on the dream. The MLB guys struck and felt the public's wrath. MLB had been in the driver seat with them since. AMLU is in the same spot. They are desperate to provide for their 230 members or they will be destroyed by MLB and MiLB. The MiLB lawyers are not worried about what you perceive as unfair play. They have a couple hundred minimum salary examples from MiLB players to bolster their claims.

Those AMLU umpires smiled when they accepted their initial contracts and were grateful to be considered for the job. They dream of walking onto the fields in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. They will give all of that up when the ignore the assignments in late February.

Do your research before you get on the Internet and spout things as fact.

I did. Having been lucky enough to have been there and smart enough to know I would never make it, I can't understand why you would want to continue this argument. Unless of course you are also posting regularly on the AMLU site...[/i]