Change in CPL (long-ish post)

[HokieUmp]

Originally Posted by Steven Tyler

They already have one poster squawking about how it isn't fair that he might not get a chance to to summer collegiate ball. This country is in a recession and companies are going to get as lean and mean as possible.

Dude, I didn't think it was squawking, but okay... all right, maybe it was. And it's squawking well ahead of when if affects me, but as tcarilli mentioned, it's not like the college guys in various associations won't get games. So there's a pushback all the way down our chain of command.

And look, let's not blame a recession and the economy for this. MLB is already lean and mean when it comes to offciating. They make big bags of money every day, since fans don't hold the game accountable, and spend nothing on the officials at the pro level. And although I really don't know THAT much about PBUC, from what I've been taught about the process, it's that PBUC and MiLB hold all the cards, and minor league umps don't have much choice, since there's always someone else coming through pro school. AND, MiLB also makes lots of money, too - they get fans at the gate, and farm systems get good money from the parent club.

If anything, the economy will be used as an excuse to justify the move. Something like "well, we see potential in these umpires, and don't want them to spend more money on pro school in these hard times, so we're creating our own little "farm system" to oversee their progress." Or something like that.