[greymule]

"Every dollar you take is a dollar taken away from a child that may not be able to afford to play."

And the money I selfishly spent on a DVD player could have gone to feed starving children.

Every youth league I was ever associated with had provisions to accommodate kids who couldn't pay.

I saw people take unfair advantage of that policy, too. I'm not saying it's representative, but just as one outrageous example: one kid's father claimed he couldn't afford the $15 fee for our soccer league, so naturally we let the kid play for free. The father was arrested a few months later in an undercover drug sting operation. He had $1,800 in cash on him.

Do the sporting goods companies donate the uniforms and equipment to LL? When a player gets hurt, does the hospital treat him for free? Does Exxon give parents gasoline to drive to LL games? Does the utility company give away the electricity to light the parks?

Volunteerism and philanthropy are fine, and if leagues want to require parent involvement that can take the form of officiating, that's up to them. But let's not pretend that umpires are somehow obliged to give away their services.