Baseball Has Not Been Good to Me

[jpc2119]

I'm a 20 yr old college student with aspirations of being a professional umpire....my Dad send me this article a few weeks ago, just thought I'd share it with the rest of you.


By BRUCE WEBER
Published: March 3, 2006
Sarasota, Fla.

SPRING training is traditionally a time of hope and renewal. But not this season, at least not for minor league umpires.

This year the umpires and their union are in a dispute over money with their regular-season employers, Minor League Baseball, and they have elected to stay away from spring training in order to signal that a strike is imminent. Opening day is scheduled for April 6, and as of now it doesn't look as if the 220 members of the union, the Association of Minor League Umpires, will show up.

It's true that the minor league games will probably go on, with replacement umpires, culled from the amateur ranks. But it is worth taking a moment to examine the plight of those who aspire to call balls and strikes in the big leagues and whose devotion to custodial duty in what is, after all, the signature American game, is so poorly rewarded as to border on nobility. (Some, of course, would say foolishness.)

It is accepted as part of the job description that professional umpires, whose skill, stamina and acuity are vastly underestimated by just about everyone who isn't an umpire, don't need or expect a great deal of affirmation; they are, after all, used to the muscle aches associated with standing for hours at a time, the headaches brought on by vigilance and the bruises delivered by foul tips — not to mention the second-guessing and scorn heaped on them daily. But as the union negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement, many of those I've talked to say they're fed up not with the job but with the baseball hierarchy's disdain for them.

Major League Baseball turned its umpire development program over to the minor leagues in 1997. The problem here is that Minor League Baseball views umpiring not as a career but as seasonal employment, an apprenticeship.

Not surprisingly, the pay is dreadful. Last season, the salary range, which has gone unchanged since 1997, extended from $1,800 per month (for a five-month season) at the lowest rungs of professional ball to $3,400 per month in Triple A, a step below the majors. For this season, Minor League Baseball has offered an across-the-board $100 a month raise, but with an offsetting increase in health care co-payments.

This sits a little easier with the first- and second-year umpires in Class A ball, who are generally in their early 20's, than it does with those who have advanced to Triple A and who may have 8 or 10 years in the game, not to mention families to support. But Triple A umpires have a good deal more to complain about; for most of them, being on the threshold of the major leagues will mark the end of their careers.

That's because the 68 major league umpiring jobs — well paid, with excellent perks — are virtual lifetime appointments; there were no job openings this season, and only three new umpires have jumped to the big leagues since 2001.

If, after three or four years, a Triple A ump hasn't at least been asked to fill in for a vacationing umpire, Minor League Baseball will release him to make room for someone new.

The career path for most umpires, in other words, is a hard road to nowhere. This is a discouraging message from baseball to those charged with preserving the sanctity of the game. Cutting these umpires loose can only serve to shrink the pool of talented umpires at a time when the integrity of the game seems more under threat than ever before.

What minor league umpires need is a reason to pursue the profession other than their love of the game. Well, here's a wild hope: we could expand the major league union to include Triple A umpires, with all union members sharing duties, rotating among major and minor leagues.

Barring that, it would help if the minor league club owners would come to see umpires as something more than an annoying expense, part of the cost of doing business, like a shipment of bats. The strike, should it come to that, might do the trick.

Bruce Weber, a former Times reporter, is writing a book about umpires.

[JRutledge]

We have been discussing this all over this site. Where have you been young man? Do not worry; this probably will be solved long before you get a realistic shot at the pros.

Peace

[briancurtin]

thanks for the news...

[officialtony]

" . . . bruises delivered by foul tips . . "
Who prepared this article?
How does one get bruised by a foul tip?

[briancurtin]

ooh its that article. i remember pointing out the same thing the first time this got posted, tony.

[MPHump]

Hey MRNICEGUY your so nice, you tell everyone that umpires spend too much time on this and that well I feel you spend too much time talking about yourself and things that you do NOT know about. Your point about it being slim and none is not your business just like it wouldn't be mine to tell you your chances at havinh a good life are slim and none. Get a clue, realize one more thing, your that guy.

[jpc2119]

I wasn't posting this article to break the news of the MiLB umpire issue, it was more for info like the small pay (I didn't know how many of you knew the exact figures) and I apologize for the redundancy.

As for the advice from the rest of you, it is most appreciated. When I graduate next year, I'm going to Wendelstedt or Evans and giving it my best shot. You only live once, might as well be doing what you love, right?

[greymule]

$1,800 per month (for a five-month season)

That's $9,000. I know guys around here (central NJ) who make more than that doing a season of rec softball.

[LMan]

Originally Posted by officialtony

How does one get bruised by a foul tip?

Easy...it happens right after the ball rebounds off the hands that are part of the bat!