I would expect a totally asinine statement from you, orangeump.

First off, for the first 16 years I umpired, I worked no less than 175, and as many as 228 games in a calendar year. That is many more games than any pro umpire works in any given year.

Secondly, I was referring to wet-behind-the-ears, fresh out of pro-school umpires, who barely have any game experience, i.e., less than 500 to 600 games, which is usually the case with minor league umpires.

Third, the example you listed is just plain stupid. The 90 year old man who started umpiring at age 40. Yeah, okay......put down the crack pipe before posting, please!

I don't take issue with the Minor League striker umpiring lower level to fill his time and wallet. UNLESS...he is not part of that organization, didn't pay the required dues and isn't taking the best games from those who deserve to work them. Cherry picking those assignments is happening and the guy who has put in a decade or more in order to prove himself is now relegated to less visible games. That person is getting skunked by a guy who has no shot at being assigned playoff contests.

Now, we've had rain at the most inopportune times this Spring. A lot of games have been tossed around and schedule shifting has become the norm. If that MiLB guy wants some work, I know an assignor or two who can give him all the Freshman, Sophomore or JV contests he can handle. It's not like he's going to need to stay sharp - those replacements are handling the task very well.

The only thing you might have missed was my sarcasm. The gentleman
said he made $10,500 last year in MiLB, I was wondering if he thought
he could match that figure doing high school ball.

Right, so you're not doing it for the sake of working MLB. You're doing it for some other reason, possibly for the love of it. Which, in the old fashioned (and best) sense, would make you an amateur (remember, "amo, amas, amat?"). Of course, it's possible to umpire both for the love of it and for the $$...

Amateurs, working for the love of it, have a rather different psychology, since they have another career and other parts of their lives to define themselves.