Quote:
Originally posted by ozzy6900
No disrespect intended, but have you ever seen some of these "volounteer" umpires? Gear on wrong (if at all) which invites injury. Calling the game by myths and made up rules which confuses the players. Allowing games to continue during lightning storms with no understanding of the consequences just invites disaster. This is what LL wants!
No! I'm sorry. Umpiring is part of the game and should be done by people who love the game enough to take the crap! By people who understand the rules and are willing to stand toe to toe with a coach or a BOD member. By people who show up at the game with full equipment, ready to do the plate, the bases or even work alone. And if that means that we get paid for our time, then so be it!
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This may very well be one of the most offensive posts I have ever read. Just to get this straight, I do a great deal of volunteer umpiring, have my own equipment which is top of the line and which I wear properly, love the game, study the rules dilligently and understand them, go toe to toe with coaches et al on a regular basis, take a ton of crap, and will work under any conditions including triple headers with temps over 100 and humidity in the high 80s. Plate, field, alone, I don't care. I have never once allowed the children's safety to be overridden by a desire to see the game played out. Guess what, I'm not unique.
The reason that little league does not pay their umpires is that they do not have tax dollars to pay them with the way high schools do. It is a simple matter of economics and if you jack the price on the players to cover umpires, then most leagues would see a significant drop in participation as they would price themselves out of the market.
One more point, where do you think that most umpires who move up to paid status come from? They start out as unpaid volunteers and, if they have an aptitude and an affinity for it, move up. You would remove that?
I agree that it is not a perfect system but to say that everyone who does volunteer umpiring is an incompetent buffoon is absurd.