single umpires?

[Gre144]

Originally posted by Tom Sprague
I received a phone call today from a friend who moved to Orange County, California. He's doing Legion ball for $40/a game and only gets scheduled as a single. This seems to be the norm out there........how can this baseball rich area be doing the kids this injustice by using a single Blue on the field. Does anyone have any input as to how and why ? I've done over 120 games this year in the Houston area and have had two or more umpires scheduled for everyone of them.

Baseball is no different than any other business. The pay is determined by supply and demand. Apparently, in California they can find guys to do a game by themselves for $40. If they couldn't the price would go up. A couple of days ago, I was by myself and the coach wanted to only pay me $40. I told him time and 1/2($60) or I wasn't going to do the game. He said no problem. For $40 it is not worth it to be out there by yourself. I would suggest to your friend to tell the assigner that he will not do games for $40 dollars by himself. If he and other umpires stick together on this issue they will get at least time and 1/2 for a one man game.

Greg