devils advocate: softball umps deserve parity simply for putting up with that incessant, constant chanting...

Those games always seem to be covered here.

It amazes me that people *really* think JV games should pay the same as varsity games. I've never seen the JV boxscores or standings in the paper and I've never seen a JV state tournament. There's more pressure and more expected at the varsity level and those umpires should receive more money for working those games.

Enough bickering
 

The purpose of my original post was to get feedback from different parts of the country as to how much they are paid for game fees. I wanted to compare this with what we receive here in Texas. It appears we lost sight on this subject and how are starting to argue as which sport (baseball or softball) is harder to officiate. Lets face it guys, both have there up & downs, I really believe is comes down to individual preference.
I still would like more feedback on what you receive for both sports in your neck of the woods.
Thanks Again In Advance.
Gary Evins
San Antonio, TX.

Funny thing about threads like these -- you can start them, but you can't control where they end up going.

FWIW~I would rather work a Fresh/JV game that has kids that actually can play than a varsity game that doesn't, so I fail to see your logic.

I've only worked the first half of the past few seasons because that is when I'm needed the most. I set my personal agenda aside, and don't go off to where the big money is to be made.

The Dallas ISD has some horrendous baseball. Veterans never work them, or are assigned to them from what I've seen. Shitty baseball is shitty baseball. When they start working shitty baseball because I'm unqualified to work varsity, I'll worry about what level I officiate at.

Yes, they have four teams out of each of these distracts that make the playoffs. They play a schedule worst than suburban JV's play. Often times ten players is a large squad.

Football and basketball are the sports around here. Basketball especially now since the inner city kids play it better than most suburb schools.

If games are timed like football and baseball, a sliding scale is acceptable. Also, the association needs to make sure that "all officials" are working their level of expertise.

I don't know all the details, but in my opinion, Mark Cousins dangled a carrot in front of all the TASO big dogs, and they couldn't get enough. He may have put a wedge in associations that can't be fixed.

agree.

I have heard that argument before too.

If there is a JV age player who is good enough, he is on the Varsity, and playing. No coach wants talent to sit the pine in Varsity game when they could play every day on JV team and help the Varsity team in a future year.

Varsity talent is better, games don't last as long, pitchers can pitch, catchers can catch, fielders can field. So in some ways JV is harder to do.

But as Rich said, more is expected of varsity umpires and they should be paid more for the knowledge they learned while learning the ropes working JV ball.

Tournament games pay a whopping $5 more than regular season here, still no mileage.

I can't recall if they have done it since, but around August of 2008, Referee Magazine had an entire chart with fees per state. Maybe someone has that around. I'm not looking to take a trip into the attic until I need to get my Christmas lights out.

That is maybe too general of a statement. If you're talking about JV/Varsity for the same school, of course the varsity will have the most talent.

Around here (and, I'm sure, other places) it really depends on the league. There is a great disparity between the urban and suburban schools. Our city league has notoriously bad baseball. There are a lot of kids playing varsity that look like they have never played baseball before in their lives.

The surrounding suburbs get kids involved in the sport at a young age and funnel them up through feeder programs. For many of these schools, their middle school teams could handle the city school's varsity, and their JV teams would clean their clock.

You are correct, very general statement. Big schools around here and most are pretty good at Varsity level. JV ball not bad in comparison but clearly not the same level as Varsity.