[GarthB]

[QUOTE=BlueLawyer]

Originally Posted by GarthB

Okay, just in the interest of facts: According to PBUC, AAA minor league umpires make Class AAA: $2,500-3,400 per month for five month season. That would equal $12,500 to $17,000 per season, not per year.

Also, again, according to PBUC, "Salaries may vary from the above ranges due to service time or other special circumstances. Umpires receive a promotion premium in the form of increased pay when promoted to Class AA, and another promotion premium when promoted to Class AAA." This means that some AAA umpires make more than the $17,000 listed above, for a five month season.

$3,400 per month is more than many school teachers make.

QUOTE]

School teachers are underpaid, too. The fact that they are underpaid does not justify underpaying umpires.

The press has been reporting $15k as the pay for a AAA umpire. This is the figure a friend of mine in AAA confirms. Maybe PBUC should get out in front and tell people exactly how generous- oh wait a minute . . . then they'd have to talk about the entire embarrasing pay scale.

Who "forces" them to work minor league ball? Nobody. Who "forces" baseball to use umpires? When I was a kid, we played many a game of sandlot ball with no umpire. Does MiLB need umpires? Or can we just send the teams out there night after night and have them call their own? Honor system, fellas. The next time you go to ask for a raise from your boss, ask yourself who forces you to work there.

The one thing we haven't been talking about is the upward and downward pressure a longterm strike is likely to put on other levels of baseball. It will put upward pressure on the Majors, because if MiLB fires or "replaces" on a permanent basis all of the AMLU umps, the Majors will have no new umpires ready in the long term to replace retiring umps. In the short term, anybody they bring up as replacements during the season for vacationing or injured umpires will be (a) untrained and probably unqualified and (b) if scabs, likely to get exactly the same reception scabs got in the 1979 season of big league ball. It has already put downward pressure on college and high school umpires. I don't know about everybody else in the country. Here in Arkansas, we don't have enough umpires, period, let alone enough good umpires. When MiLB mines our top guys to come work AA games, the rest of our schedule pays the price by having umps work games they are probably not ready to work.

Strikes and outs!

Why is it my posts are edited in the replies and then responded to in such a way that makes it appear that I am opposed to the MiLB demands? Why is it that my statements: "I certainly support raises for minor league umpires. They deserve them. I support raises for school teachers, too. They also deserve them. I have no quibble with the ends. I continue to believe the umpires were misled about the means." never appear in replies and are ignored? Why is it some posters need to paint this issue as either one is "for" or "against" the MiLB umpires?

Must we agree 100% with union leadership and march in lockstop to be regarded as supportive of the members? is there no room for difference of opinon within the union? If so, the recent 2-1 vote against what the leadership called a good deal must represent heresy.

I have several friends in the MiLB. My son is working hard to join them. I understand their plight and I believe they are deserving of what they are asking for. But I have the right to also believe their leadership could be better.