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Originally Posted by PeteBooth
IMO, there needs to be some reward for Volunteer umpires no matter how good or bad if the Philosohpy "LL is for Volunteers" truly applies. There are many many Regular season games to cover before the Regionals even begin.
If you have volunteers that have been doing many games all year long and then all of a sudden "bring in the heavy-weighs" come Tournament time how do you expect any LL organization to continue to recruit Volunteer Umpires.
IMO, it's TV that is the problem. In the past the only game shown on TV was the final game. Then ESPN came along and started televising the Regional Finals. Now they televise for the most part all the Regional games.
Unfortunately LL has "sold out to the almighty dollar" and they will always have umpires available for the regionals / LLWS. They couldn't give a rat's you know what about the regular season.
Pete Booth
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Pete,
While this would be admirable, it simply isn't practical for most Little Leagues to go in this direction.
In my district, we have local league umpires and district umpires. In order to work the tournaments, you must be chosen to be on the district staff. It's called quality control -- our district UIC is an experienced HS/college umpire and we don't put anyone on the field that would embarrass us (or the umpire would embarrass himself).
I volunteer. Not for a lot of league play -- that's where younger and less experienced umpires cut their teeth -- but I volunteer come tournament time. I don't consider it skimming the gravy off the top, either. Those games aren't always good and those kids in the tourneys deserve a decent level of officiating.