New ump in Little League

[greymule]

I think many people assume wrongly that because the players are young, the umpiring must be easy, so why spend money needlessly?

The local league for 12-and-under kids is I think a Babe Ruth organization. All parents must volunteer (!) for various tasks or "buy out" for $75 each parent. (Maybe it's $100 by now.) Their "minor" league is umpired by "major" division players. The "major" players are in turn umpired by 13- and 14-year-olds. These umps do get paid, but it's not much (three or four bucks). A local umpire who does Fed for middle school games oversees these officials.

The 12-and-under umpires, as might be expected, know very little and are easily intimidated by the adult coaches. They also haven't developed the judgment necessary for officiating. For example, they grossly overinterpret the league's idiotic "must slide" rule, calling scoring runners out when the catcher is ten feet from the plate and the ball is rolling across the mound.

The 13- and 14-year-olds try to act like "regular umpires"—some of them immediately threaten coaches with ejection for any comment or question at all. But again these kids don't know much, and coaches who know how to "work" the umps get horrendously blown calls in their favor. The judgment of these umpires is also generally poor. Runners are called out for being out of the baseline on wide swings around 3B. Batters dive out of the way of a pitch and are called for a strike because the bat ended up in front of the body. Safe and out on the bases is anybody's guess.

But they've been doing things this way a long time. So if they're happy with it . . .

[Striker991]

Everyone knows my opinion, so I'll not say another word. However, something everyone should be aware of:

If you are paid by a local league that is affiliated with Little League, you are NOT covered under Little League volunteer insurance. This has been stated by Williamsport. This means you would need to carry your own insurance (easy to get, really, by just joining this site, ABUA, or some other well-known officials organization).

That's all. Carry on.

[mick]

Originally posted by Striker991
Everyone knows my opinion, so I'll not say another word. However, something everyone should be aware of:

If you are paid by a local league that is affiliated with Little League, you are NOT covered under Little League volunteer insurance. This has been stated by Williamsport. This means you would need to carry your own insurance (easy to get, really, by just joining this site, ABUA, or some other well-known officials organization).

That's all. Carry on.

It ain't bad to be passionate.

On Striker991's note, I found out last year that if you are certified with the MASA (Michigan Amateur Softball Association). We also get an insurance policy that'll cover us for all other sports that we officiate (specifically includes NCAA, MHSAA, MIAA, MAC Softball, etc.) except for non-ASA sanctioned softball games. Accident, liability and game fee reimbursement. I assume other state ASA chapters have something similar.
This is not an advertisement; it's just fact.
That's probably more than anyone wanted to know.
mick

[IHSAIllini]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure (though I should probably check out) that the Illinois High School Association covers insurance for officials. If there are any fellow ISHA-ers on the board, let me know, I'd rather not go pawing through the waist-high stack of paperwork I have, with the IHSA stuff buried somewhere in the middle.

On the question of local pay scales...for those of you who DO get paid, how much is it and what's the variance? 'round my parts, depending on which league you're doing, the pay can range from merely high to obscene (obscence is Lake Forest - I need to do more of those games) but for a rookie ump working a 2-man system, it's never less than $21 a game. For me, if you tack on longevity and state recognition, I make close to $40. This is part of my pitch to kids in the pre-season clinics - I tell them they could be wiping some crap off the ground in a McDonalds for something that's barely over minimum wage, or making $10 an hour umpiring.

Of course, thanks to the new labor enforcement of IDOL (Illinois Department of Labor, or simply 'Satan' to some youth leagues) we've seen interest in umpiring bottom out. The 13 year-olds now go to work someone else, since we only ask them to volunteer until they're eligible to get a work permit at age 14. It's made finding any umpires for a game, running across the board 1-man systems a royal pain.

[Edited by IHSAIllini on Jun 1st, 2003 at 09:10 PM]

[sunfudblu]

Two years ago our local Little League (Bronco Level) that I played in when I was young asked me if I would schedule them patched umpires. When I asked why, the president said that the parents have been complaining about the high school kids doing the games......changing calls (at the request of the coach).....being undecisive...etc. I told them that it wouldn't be cheap for the whole season and they told me that the parents are willing to fork over the extra cash.

After agreeing to do this I remembered a few situations where I was umpiring Pony and even High School where I had to turn my head after hearing a parents berating a kid for a call he made. There are 4 diamonds back to back where the Varsity plays on one, Pony plays on one, and the other 2 are for Bronco.

Well, almost 2 full seasons have passed and neither I nor the president have yet to hear of one complaint. Everyone's happy and by the way they pay $50.00 a game.

Oh yeah, Striker, I personally and voluntarily started a sports league in this area 3 years ago for kids with special needs so I DO give back to my community even though I get paid for doing Little League.

We are called the Twin City Titans and our motto is (unlike Little League) "ALL kids are able to play."