[harpdog]

From me this is my first post to this forum and I am in my second year of umping but a long time coach and player. My view on umpires has changed, of course when I became one but I became an umpire out of a need to work and make money. this is my only income as I reach an age of 60. Money is always an issue especially in a poor economy, rising gas prices and and more unemployment than our country cares to mention. However, with this poor economy come fewer resgistrations of younger players and fewer slow pitch tea, no mens fast pitch in my area that used to be a hot bed for it, and schools cutting back means less JV games and in some cases allowing schools to make one team out of 2 schools. Asking for more more only means a deteriation of the games future.
With this being said, anytime I can work a job that allows me to be around good people(ASA ump;s especially) and still get a lot of respect from players an coaches at all levels, and Have Fun, you will not hear me complain no matter how poor I am..
We all want money but there are many umpires that get pensions, and work to pay for their next holiday that complain the most. I find the ones with more complain the most and the ones with less are happy to just make money.
Anyone who complains can go do baseball and get yelled at by everyone.
Lets keep this lifestyle into perspective. I feel honored to be in the ASA association.
Family is always first no matter what the function, I have 10 children and 17 grandkids. I am happy to give up a few dollars for some time with them. If an association does not recruit enough umpires then the membership should help.
In my area the most we get is $55 for HS varsity down to 24 dollars for weekend tournament games where we do upto 5 games a day. The kids and the parents have a lot of respect for that kind of dedication but they cannot afford to pay more either.