Knew it was coming

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

It's a lot more complicated than that. I am a Little League volunteer who also happens to work games at other levels (HS, college, etc.). I teach at a LL junior umpire clinic every season and do what I can to make our umpiring better during the tournament season.

I do have the feeling that there are a significant number of umpires and others within Little League that think that anyone who takes money for umpiring should fall lower on the ladder than those selfless volunteers who do nothing but umpire LL baseball. And that, IMO, is a complete crock of crap.

I agree with you that it is more complicated. But you get what you pay for. When you pay people nothing and want them to go across the country or world to work, you eliminate a lot of good people that do not see the value in working games. I worked LL for the first few years and we were paid. The reason they were paid is that the local park district was the body that assigned all umpires for all games at the park district. So they paid umpires to work those games. Actually I thought that was the case all over the country until a few years after that. You do not have to pay them $1000 a game, just enough to cover expenses and reasonable fees. I cannot think that is good for the overall quality and it shows when we watch these games.

Peace