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Originally Posted by tcannizzo
The only people who know there is a severe umpire shortage is the umpires. I have often wondered why there is little to no recruiting of umpires.
In the 19 years that I have been chest-high in youth softball, I have only seen one case of someone advertising for umpires (my ad on the GA fastpitch message board last month).
In fact, if anyone can show me another example of where there is a "Call for Umpire Recruits", I would be glad to buy you a cold one.
It is like the "silicon valley mentality of business" that the fish will just jump into the boat. Put a line in the water before you complain that they aren't biting today.
Let the flames begin.  |
Here in this part of Texas, we actively recruit officials via newspaper, public access programming, other sports officials' publications, going out to fields to watch "lower" level umpires in hopes they would move up, by talking to players and trying to encourage them to join the ranks of sports officials...etc. We are still showing negative growth year after year, and the primary reason given by those who quit are the way they are treated by fans, coaches, players....etc.
So...as someone who is a part of organizations who have put many a line in the water, and still come up empty handed, let me tell you, Mike has hit the proverbial nail on the head.