Schools Out . . .
 

Well last nght was graduation from the pro schools.

Interesting the 14 umpires that worked that funky league last summer were all sent to PBUC. Each school sent 25 potential candidates to PBUC.

So 64 guys fighting for a number of limited openings.

(i.e. so far ONE MiLB umpire has been released)

It is rumored that there maybe about 15 openings spread across the entire minor league system. Probably not the best year to try for a job.

Oh, BTW, there will be a full time MLB opening in the very near future.

Regards,

Tim,

the coastal plain league website http://coastalplain.com/alumni/umps lists 18 umpires alumni as being in the game and 5 guys who didn't get out of the cpl. Does this mean that a bunch of these fourteen came off of school reserve lists?

Tony

Joe West has the 2009 crews up on his website. There is no replacement for Poncino on the list - just a spot for "AAA Umpire" on one of the crews.

Larry mentioned in a paper in Michigan last September that he was retiring.

Whether MLB is waiting until after Spring training to announce his replacement or will do so before Spring training is anybody's guess. If before Spring training it better be quick since they must get ready for the World Classic. Will it be one of the Senior guys with more than 1000 games (7 years worth) or will it be someone with less time and less game experience?

The MLBU contract comes up at the end of this year. Sometimes??, this leads to retirements, not only in baseball but in other sports also, especially if the negotiated retirement package is more lucrative.

Had a buddy at Harry's. haven't heard anything since Day 1.

Hope he did well. Learned a lot regardless.

Yes, tough cookie to crack.

But, when the guys needed a raise, all the amateurs jumped over and worked the games. I wonder how they feel about the amateurs?
The A ball guys make $71 a game for the most senior guys, AA make $85 and AAA makes $107.

Hell, Ozzy's group makes $99-$109 for a game and he gets to sleep in his own bed at night and see his family. We will see what happens when the contract comes up for renewal again. Will the amateurs cross the lines again? It doesn't hurt for the both the local assignor and the umpires to say no, that they have enough business and that they do not need to meddle in the pro game.

Unfortunately, the statement is false. While it may be true that those that worked the games during the strike were all amateurs, it is not true that "all the amateurs jumped..." In fact, in the area where that "funky league" (Coastal Plain League) is located, 95% of the CPL staff did not cross. I don't want to rehash this issue, but you seem to be mistaken in your perception of which umpires crossed and how those who worked in the CPL were effected.

Mmmm,
 

There will be yet another retirement (in addition to Poncino) to fill an administrative position.

:-}

Tim,

I just wanted to clarify the part about One MILB umpire being released. Where is that one from? I know of two MilB umpires at the AAA level that were released last year. Just trying to figure the math out....

Thanks,

Lawrence

I believe the release letters are sent out about World Series time, per Ria Cortesio's article about her release in 2007.

Yes, it is probably a rough year to try for a job due to the World Baseball Classic. They are probably going to need the entire AAA staff working MLB Spring Training while the regular staff works the Classic. That would leave very few AAA guys to man the minor league Spring Training camps. That would explain (just guessing) the few releases this year. So, maybe next year would be a good year to go. The above is just pure speculation.

Boy, tough to guess that other job opening. Seems like Montague missed the last month in 2008. Since I did not read any articles about a bad back or concussion's for Montague, I would assume he had knee or foot problems. Unless it was a torn ACL or something, he should be ready. Crawford had back problems recently from articles in the paper. Hirschbeck, Carlson, Randazzo have had some neck surgery and Danley was knocked out last year, but unless they were told to stop like Larry was, they should be ready. Haven't read about any old vertigo problems reappearing for Reilly lately.

Guess I will read about it when it happens. I would imagine they are trying to work out some special buyout package if we have not read or heard anything about it in the papers yet.

Sorry, I was not referring to the CPL or ("all") every single amateur umpire out there jumping. I forgot to knock that line about the funky league out. However, it was strictly the amateurs who worked the games in place of MiLB umps who were on strike, and therefor my comments about what will happen next time. I imagine there were some college assignors who told their staff not to work those games since they could be needed to fill in at a college game at the last minute.

I feel bad for the original amateur CPL guys who got knocked out of that league by the powers that be in Pro baseball. That was strickly a deal with the higher ups to let the reserves from the pro schools work that league. I am sure that was not a deal proposed by the reserve umps themselves. Wouldn't you know it was a former Carolina League umpire, Pete Bock, who runs that league, who put that deal together to start with, and of course it was all about the money. And naturally, the reserve guys associated with that league now make 1/2 what the original CPL umps made, just like the AAA guys make 1/2 to 1/3 what the D1 guys make per game.

Just curious, what papers do you read for umpire news?

I might not be an umpire at the "retiring" age. It could be a younger umpire who desires to continue his career in the front-office off the field. Remember Rich Reiker did this.

"In 2002 a herniated disk in his neck forced him off the field and into his current job". This is a quote from 'St. Louis Magazine' which did an article on Rich Rieker.

A lot of times I just google the persons name. You can google the umpire's name or you can try and hope you hit (guess) the exact keywords to an ariticle
like "Jerry Crawford injured" to find out.
Googled Larry Poncino to find out he was going to retire last September from ongoing injuries and Doctors recommendations.

Major league baseball . com will eventually name the replacement umpires.

Try www.UmpNews.com - it has a great compilation of umpire related articles and links.

Man if I was a Milb guy i think I would be a little upset, hell almost every college guys makes more than we do. I thought those guys got paid a lot more than that. I see why they want to talk contracts all the time.

It's not like the Milb guys will stand up against the system to get higher pay. They had everyone on their side but MLB during their strike and came back to work for basically nothing.

I don't feel that an amateur that works games for the CPL or similar D ball leagues can be considered scabs since these aren't pro leagues in the first place.IMO

The rates listed are not exactly accurate. MiLB umpires are not paid per game; they are paid per month.

Correct. A fellow umpire in my organization told me how much he's getting paid -- it was "per month."

That said, I still make more at my full-time job than he does umpiring. I don't know if there's any extra benefits (medical, dental, etc.) he gets for free, so that may tip the scales his direction.

The System needs to get fixxed!
 

It is broken in the sense that too many fine young men throw away, by that I mean aren't building retirement, for too much of their earning years.

I know there are many schools of thought, but I am all for local guys working local games, and just AAA or maybe even AA being the professional minor league system. That way the minor leagues get the best umpires avaiable and the guys working to get to MLB don't have to gamble away so much of their life.

How many full time jobs have opened since 2000 that weren't part of guys getting jobs back from '99, and how many guys have gotten jobs out of PBUC? Too many are losing the way it is set up now.

Try multiplying the game fee by 30 and see if that is close to the monthly fee. 2100 to 2300 per month sounds about right to me. That is 70 to 75 per game.

I seriously doubt there is any insurance included as these umps are not in pro ball yet. I can't remember if short season umps actually receive insurance.

There are benefits in working about 3.5 to 4 hrs a day excluding travel and drinking beer/carousing late into the night does not interfere with your work schedule. :D

This is a note from Shawn Francis that was posted on the AMLU website.

"Recently I have been made aware that umpire school graduates who were sent to the PBUC evaluation course in Cocoa, FL, and who did not receive placement in Minor League Baseball for the 2008 season, are being offered placement in the Coastal Plain League for the summer. In exchange for taking the assignment, the umpire school graduates are being offered a return trip to the PBUC evaluation course in 2009 without having to go through the expense and uncertainty of umpire school another time.

The collegiate umpires who normally work this college wood bat league each summer are now expressing their dissapointment with Minor League Umpires, who in their eyes are taking their games away from them.

First, please let me make myself and the AMLU clear, we share the umpires dissapointment that their games were taken away from them by the agreement the Coastal Plains League sought out with PBUC. Most importantly, the umpires in this area were some of the most supportive umpires of the AMLU during our work stoppage two years ago. This has not gone unnoticed by the AMLU and is why we are working on finding a solution to this situation.

Understand that the umpires that are working these games this summer are NOT Minor League Umpires.

They are NOT members of the AMLU.

The AMLU has NO jurisdiction over those umpires.

The AMLU and/or actual Minor League Umpires cannot prevent the Coastal Plains League Presdient from seeking umpires anywhere he sees fit.

If the Coastal Plains League was seeking to use actual Minor League Umpires, the AMLU would certainly not allow that to happen.

The AMLU is continuing to look into any possible scenerio that we can take part in that will help the collegiate umpires in getting their games back.

If anyone has any thoughts on what the AMLU can do to help out in any way please post your thoughts here so they can be considered and discussed.

Thank You.
_________________
Shaun Francis
AMLU President "

Let's see what happens next time, if they have to strike, if nobody crosses the line to work the games. Let's see how long they let coaches and players on both sides umpire the games, before they settle on an agreement, and lets see the raise they get.

Unfortunately, there will always be those who will cross the picket line so they can say they were professional umpires. It's a shame.

Correct, they are paid per month. However, I took several articles that quoted the rate per season for senior umpires at each level, AAA-$15,000, AA-$12,000, A-$10,000 and short A-$5,000 and divided by 140 which is the number of games in a MiLB season. This gave me the fee per game for each level. AAA-$107, AA-$85 and A-$71. Since all the amateurs are paid per game, I wanted to show the per game fee for MiLB. Also, only the full season (A,AA,AAA, not short-A or Rookie) receive the health benefits package.

Yes, now you know. But at the amateur level there is that major discrepancy (for which I get that economics lecture) between the D1 Basketball guys working for $1,000 per game and the D1 Baseball guys working for $200 per game. I think that discrepancy should be what it is at the High School level between basketball and baseball, and I bet the discrepancy isn't that blatant.
Even for the D1 finals, the Basketball refs are paid $1,400 for that game while the D1 Baseball umps are paid $3,900 for the whole tournament, which, if the maximum number of games are played, some umpires work 11-13 games which is only $300-$350 per game.

I believe that in addition to the contracted salary per level of ball, MiLB umpires also get a "bump" based on years of service. A four year pro working his second year in advanced A would make more than a third year pro in his first year in advance A. At least that's what I glean from conversations. Of course those conversations are accompanied by several bottles of amber colored liquid, so I could have misunderstood.

I hate to break it to you, but most of the D1 basketball ref are making more than a 1k... I know a guy who worked a D1 games at Bradley and got 2100 before travel and perdiem..atlot of guys are making about 3k+ doing games like Kansas U...

No, I knew there is a select group of officials making $3000-3500 per game plus airfare (which you can pocket any left over if it works out) and $200 per diem. This group and the fees are kept close to the vest, so to speak, as you well know. I was just using the article (something in print) about Steve Welmer where he said he made $1,000 per game and kept the return flight home pay for his trips since he just went right to the next sight. He also told of the $200 per diem. He may be in that select group of officials, yet he was just talking about a game that paid a lesser fee. Yes, I know there are some W-2's out there for $200-$300k per year and they get to write off any travel expenses and pay taxes on the travel expenses they keep.

Of course, the great Billy Packer (yeah right) of "the coach is 'working' the officials" fame, got this started years ago when he said the basketball officials should be making $1,000 per game right on TV. He must of had a bug put in his ear from some fellow officials he knew.

For years there was well known official that had a room at the airport hotel in GSO and just drove to all his games in the area, but was pocketing (and paying taxes on) the round trip airfare for each game in addition to his game fee and per diem.

So, yes, once again the D1 Baseball fee pails in comparison to the D1 Basketball fee (I can hear that economics lesson again) and it should be in line with the 'difference' in fees at the High School level between baseball and basketball.

Correct, and I will leave with this, you can go to the PBUC website and see the range for each level under 'salaries'. The monthly range for AAA 2,600-3,500--AA 2,300-2,700--A 2,000-2,400--Short-A and Rookie 1,900-2,100. You can divide the monthly salary by 30 or 31 for the number of days in the months from April (not a full month so it is pro-rated probably),May,June,July, August, to see what their actual pay per game would be so you can associate that with the per game amateur pay. Yes, the more Senior umps in a league are paid more than the less Senior umps in a league.

Still, this works out to a maximum game fee of $116 (31 day month) or $112 (30 day month) for a Senior AAA umpire, which is pretty close to the $107 I used from the article I read which said a 'Senior' AAA ump makes 15,000 per year AA-12,000, A-10,000(I just divided by a 140 game season).

I didn't notice anyone suggesting that it did.

Did anyone hear or see the list of guys who got picked up by PBUC? I heard from a reliable source that a guy who was 42 is going to PBUC..just wondering if anyone heard this. I do think that is pretty frickin cool.

John Grasso, I believe. Former policeman and firemen from New Haven according to the newspaper.

I wish him the best.

I think that is cool.. I know they have that unwritten rule about being to old, I hope this guy can show them.

Back to the the first page of this thread. Any new news?