[SanDiegoSteve]

You guys who have never worked one-man games are sure a spoiled bunch. You just don't know how good you've had it!

In the largest cities around the country, one-man games are very common at the sub-varsity level. In most cases, there is simply too much baseball compared to the number of available umpires. Also, many leagues, including high schools (at least here) request only one umpire do to financial reasons.

My first year, 1986, I worked over 230 games, and probably 175 of them were one-man jobs. It is absoulutely the best on-the-job training there is! There are always opportunities to work two-man games, or learn the two-man system through clinics, but the one-man prepares you for umpiring career like nothing else.

I had some prior softball experience, but my first baseball games were all one-man, or one-man with a "helper," which was usually not much help anyway. In fact, I would much rather work alone than with a) a helper, who knows very little about umpiring, or b) a real umpire who knows very little about umpiring.

The coaches in one-man games are supposed to cut you some slack on arguing plays such as the steal of second base, check swings, and tag-ups with multiple runners. At the pre-game, we remind them that there is just one umpire, and that sometimes we won't be able to see certain plays as well as if there were two of us. In reality, they tend to argue even more than normal, despite the reminders.

Sometimes, it can be fun, especially when the coach asks if you're sure the batter didn't go. You can say, "let me check with my partner....did he go? No, he didn't go!" Usually produces a laugh or two, and they get the point.

I also think it ridiculous to say that JV solo umpires should be paid substantialy less than Varsity umpires. Not only do the games not go as smoothly, but one-man umpires do work much harder and longer, call more pitches, hustle more (every ball hit is like your partner "went out"), and put up with more bullsh*t than in Varsity games.

I believe that amatuer umpires at all levels are underpaid, and should be paid more, regardless of the level. Whatever the market can bear, I say.

[Edited by SanDiegoSteve on Mar 5th, 2006 at 02:34 AM]