A sad state of affairs . . .

[Rich]

I suspect *somebody* gets a cut - it just may not be somebody from the umpire association. I mean, commissioners get paid a salary, which probably reduces game fees by a few dollars. That's not really what's at issue.

I've seen umpires, for whatever reason, held back from varsity assignments for no good reason. I've seen associations where even returning professional umpires would be saddled with JV/Freshman ball until a certain number of years were served in the association. That's the restraint of trade I'm talking about. Nobody could legitimately argue that a person who worked multiple years in the minor leagues couldn't fall into a varsity schedule easily.

If anything good comes out of these efforts, it will mean the end of associations controlling every aspect of umpiring -- assigning, payment, negotiation of fees, collecting "assigning fees" from every game, training requirements, etc. I'm as busy as I want to be and most of my assignments are from the groups themselves and I get a check when I walk on the field.