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Originally Posted by JRutledge
I think at some point we need to stop comparing one type of job to another. You cannot compare a professional umpire to a teacher. Hell we cannot even compare a college professor to an elementary school teacher with each other and pay structures and issues related to those levels. This issue is about what MiLB can play and what they are not willing to pay. This is a system that is supposed to train umpires to one day work at the Majors. I do not think anyone wants a bunch of guys that only experience is working a local league and one or two teams in a very small area. The union guys have made a commitment to work this level and to take a chance on maybe getting a shot at the "show." These replacement umpires will likely never be considered for anything but working games in place of union members. You see they did not just call up anyone to cover the MLB Umpires when those guys went on vacation. They hired guys that have training and years of pro ball experience.
I can have a game off working baseball. I cannot have a game off working a basketball game. And part of what makes basketball hard is the fact you have to hustle to get into position all the time. You do not have to work that hard to get into position working a baseball game. Even in a two man game during baseball, all I have to do is take a couple of steps and I can see the play clearly. Also in basketball I do not know of any kind of play being called "routine." Players in baseball can make us look great if they make plays or very bad if they do not make plays. As a baseball umpire I do not control the pace of the game or the style of play nearly the same way a basketball official does when working a regular game. Also this is irrelevant to this discussion of what the union should get. Basketball officials at the same level can make more money in a shorter period of time than the current Minor League system for working 5 months.
Peace
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I agree with almost everything you said, Rut . . . but-
Tell me that baseball is not more rules intensive than basketball, and I will disagree respectfully with you. The fact that baseball has a whole lot of standing around is precisely what makes it so hard to officiate. It's very hard , at least for me, to keep concentration up for 120 minutes of nothing special only to have a game-deciding, n*t cutting call at first in the bottom of the ninth. Have an off game in baseball, and you MIGHT be able to hide it. But if you are having an off game and the one "o-my-deity" call comes to you, you will be exposed.
And the point I was making in response to Just, who said it's "not rocket science." He was, in my judgment, disparaging the whole profession. Yes, for me, it's part time, but it is a profession. I don't know if he is a true demigod of baseball umpiring or just has a patholgical animosity toward AMLU. I don't care. They are professional, work hard and deserve better than to be treated the way PBUC is treating them.
Strikes and outs!