[Lilblue612]

Both GarthB and Mr. Booth make excellent points; points that I'm inclined to agree with. As a college student slowly climbing the rungs of the umpiring world, I perhaps am a living paradigm of the paid vs. volunteer debate.

At first, no matter what your compensation-- be it an item from the concession stand or a seventy-five dollar check, the quality of umpiring will usually share little if any correlation to the degree of compensation. I will say that working high-school and other higher level baseball at first may lead to a greater bredth of situations, a better quality of play, and faster paced action.

Nonetheless, one will undoubtedly come across his or her fair share of experiences even at the level of eleven and twelve-year olds. Seveal years ago I volunteered as our local commisioner of umpires-- basically doing assigning, evaluating, etc.,. Now, at the same time I got my state high school certification and embarked into the journey of paid umpiring.

What am I getting at? Volunteers are capable of doing a truly spectacular job. But, in my town, the volunteer umpires tend to be high school baseball players looking for something to do in the summer. Now, while they do know a tremendous amount about the game in and of itself, they're often more interested in where the party will be after the game, or whether or not there are any hot babes in the bleachers.

When it comes down to it, volunteers are volunteers for a few simple reasons. They're parents lending a helping hand, they're new guys getting their feet wet, they're teenagers looking for something to do during their summer, or they're more experienced (and usually paid umpires) helping out-- often at the level where they got their start. There is an exception to every rule-- but when all else is equal, paid umpires tend to be certified, they've worked higher levels of play, taken the Fed or other tests, and have been to countless clinics and rules meetings.

I am not going as so far as to say all paid umpires are better than all volunteer umpires, that's simply not true. But, when it comes down to it, paid umpires tend to have a tremendous amount of capability to fulfill their potential-- via resources not available to every volunteer. Obviously wonderful organizations such as Little League could not exist without its volunteers. They are assets to their respective communities. But, when you look at it, LLWS umpires are volunteers. The MLB World Series umpires are paid-- and they're paid for a reason, after all they have reached that rung of umpiring for a reason.

I honestly doubt there is anything that anyone can say that will come remotely near reaching a definitive conclusion on this issue. We, as umpires, all work in different regions, different games, and share different experiences. From mine, I may conclude one thing that will be nowhere close to the conclusion of someone in another area. But, volunteer or paid, we're all umpires at our most basicness. And, no matter what we get out of umpiring, we obviously do it for some love of the game. Perhaps arguing about who or how much makes for good umpiring is not as important on the fact that we're all umpires (not coaches), and that in itself is a good thing-- one of which we can all agree upon.