Quote:
Originally posted by Tim C
What is relevant in this conversation is one thing and one thing only:
"What is the current value of an umpire at each level of the minor leagues?"
No one can force considerations of sins from the past. We live in a real time economy and all that matters is what price are people willing to pay for a specific service.
Do professional umpires deserve more money?
Maybe.
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As with anything else in a semi-free market economy such as ours, a service is worth what a willing buyer and willing seller will exchange.
"Need" and "Deserve" are
PR terms used in negotiations. Management will decided at what point they will be willing to do without the current umpires and the umpires will decide at what point they will be willing to look for different work. If the offer is somewhere in between, a contract will be signed.
There's no need to lose sleep over it. This isn't the Sistine Chapel or the cure to cancer. It's minor league baseball and, like it or not, the umpire is one of the more interchangeable pieces.
There are plenty of replacement pieces available. They may not start out performing as well, but they will get there over time. And, who or what has more time than minor league baseball. Almost everybody else there has no where else to go right now.
Edited to add:
I don't write this out of lack of empathy. My association is going through a similar issue, albeit at a lower level.
The local American Legion Baseball League has offered us a new agreement in which there is no compensation for mileage, No raise in umpiring fees at the AA and AAA levels, tournaments would pay $10 less per umpire, and the assigning fee would be 1/6th of what it costs to do business with them.
We have countered with a one-time final proposal that would call for slight increases in fees, no penalties for tournament work, and an increase in the assinging fee to 1/3rd of what it costs to do business with them. We were willing to swallow hard and not address the mileage issue at this time.
We are not whining about what we deserve or need. We have simply explained to them the minimum of what we will accept. If they decide they are not willing pay that amount, we will not work their games and they will find other umpires elsewhere.
[Edited by GarthB on Feb 4th, 2006 at 02:11 PM]