Pre-game umpire conference

[jkumpire]

Where I work, just like where everyone else works, we have a cadre of people who care about the people who play the game, and the game itself. We have some people who don't work hard at umpiring, but try to do a good job, and some who just show up for the $$$.

It is a shame, but in these days of two parents working like mad to keep their financial heads above water, or one parent households trying to just survive with the economic mess they and our country is in, we need to be careful assigning motives to people. Yes, it stinks they don't want to do a pregame, but at least they are there to umpire the game. And until our country changes we will have lots of people who are umpiring for the wrong reasons, so let's make sure we do the best we can with the people we get.

As most of you know, the bigest problem we have is that on the HS level, all officials are trending up in age. We have fewer and fewer people who are young deciding to umpire on the HS level. The late teens, early 20's person is too busy, too poor, or too involved with other things to start officiating.

The fear I have is that one day there will not be enough officials for sports, and where wil the kids be?