[JIGGY]

QUOTE=WhatWuzThatBlue "If AMLU disappears, the PBUC system will still be in place and the umpires will still receive training and promotion. Candidates will still have to attend professional school and be evaluated before signing on."

WOW, THIS MAY BE THE ONLY INTELLIGENT INSIGHT ON THE ISSUE YOU HAVE EVER HAD!
Let me address these issues, and specifically JUSTME's list:


Gentlemen, lets be honest with ourselves here:

First of all lets understand that the job the Scabs are doing now, is not the same job as the AMLU umpires do season after season. An AMLU umpire doesn't get to hide his identity, refuse the press, or have MiLB threatening doom and gloom to those players and managers who argue on the field or speak badly about the umpires off of it. An AMLU umpire doesn't get to work when it is convenient for him, in the same park night after night, in his home town where he gets to go home to his family at night. The AMLU umpire makes less money per game, and has to try to eat on $20-$25 per day. His job is in jeopardy every time he steps onto the field, because unlike the Scab umpire who can make glaring mistakes in rules applications, basic mechanics, or handling on field situations on a nightly basis without any fear of being released (because MiLB is going to and has said the scabs are doing fine regardless, not to mention if they boot the Scabs, who would work then?) An AMLU umpire is a professional who is held accountable for his mistakes and is personally responsible for not making such mistakes; if AMLU umpires made many of the same mistakes that are being made on Minor League fields this season with great frequency, they would be out of jobs (I'm not saying there aren't mistakes made by AMLU umpires, just that they are held accountable, the scabs aren't).

Acknowledging that fact, one would logically ask the question:

If the Scabs aren't able to hit the mark in the situation they are in now, a "kinder-care" version of the real job, what makes anyone think they would be able to do the job for real?

The simple fact is, there aren't 220 "other" guys out there right now who could step in and do the job as well as the AMLU umpires. There may be 220 guys who could be trained to reach that level, but that is a developmental process and one that would be impossible without significantly compromising the quality of umpiring overall in the Minor Leagues for many seasons to come. There aren't 220 Rookie and Short A slots open any season, and putting an umpire in over his head doesn't make him any better at it- just look at the scabs who are working now! They have been working all season and still aren't even close to being "up to the level of the game". While you may improve on what you are doing with experience, umpires do not learn what to do by just going out on a field night after night. The statement that "as the strike continued the replacement umpires would become more able to fill in for the strikers" is asinine at best and has clearly been proven wrong.

There also seems to be a misunderstanding as to the roles of PBUC and the AMLU. The AMLU is a union charged with representing the umpires as a group of workers. To make statements like "(MiLB will)...probably restructure their entire umpire training/selection program possibly causing the demise of the current union." makes no sense whatsoever. One doesn't really have anything to do with the other. PBUC is a MiLB program, not an AMLU one, and as such PBUC on MiLB's direction has set the standards for hiring, training, developing, and releasing Minor League umpires, not the AMLU. Why would MiLB scrap their own program which they created and continue to run? This argument implies that MiLB will simply say "let's lower our expectations of Minor League Umpires by scrapping PBUC and letting local High School and College guys to take over." That is not even a remote possibility, and a really ridiculous speculation at best.

For those of you who insist on entertaining the idea that the AMLU will be "broken", that is your uninformed opinion. But to think that this labor dispute will somehow result in a change in how Minor League Umpires are hired,trained, developed, and released, or what level they are expected to perform at is just plain ignorant and one would be a fool to try to convince others of this nonsense. (hint- the group of guys who suddenly think that at 45 years old, 15lbs overweight, and without umpire school training that they will be given "a shot" because of the strike are very very sadly not in touch with reality.)