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Umpires are paid ridiculously low fees. It's an insult to be paid what little we're already paid for going through what we go through to do a game. Measured against most vocations, it should pay three times what it pays per game. So, when we get squeezed, it is an insult tacked on an already insulting compensation rate.
I work in and around L.A. I sometimes drive as many as 80-to-100 miles round trip to do a game. Sixty miles is about average. We get zero for mileage. I have an SUV, so the gas mileage is rather poor (12-14 m.p.g.). When gas was $4.50 per gallon, I had some games that were costing me $20 just for gas.
We do this because we love it. I can think of only one thing that I would do for less money than I accept for umpiring. But in order to keep umpiring, the costs and sacrifices must be allayed somewhat by a reasonable fee. It needs to go up, not down. These guys who try to go on the cheap deserve the umpiring they eventually get.
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