Basketball only?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Just wondering, in general, what other sports are also officiated by those of us who work basketball. I know lots of you mention working other sports in your posts, but I'd be curious to know who officiates the most other sports.

Personally, I do only basketball, although when I was a teenager (about 3 or 4 centuries ago), I umpired a park district baseball league for 11 and 12 year olds back in my home town. I think I got 75 cents per game (not kidding) which was probably above minimum wage back then. Only one guy worked each game and we stood behind the pitcher.

Oh yeah, a few years ago I "refereed" a croquet match. It was a charity event and I mostly ruled on whether a ball touched another ball or not and also walked around with a bullhorn (like I needed one) and gave a commentary to the spectators. It was a real great event and raised a lot of money for the local Lions Club camp for the blind. It was staged as a proper British type event and all the participants (who were Lions Club members and senior citizens) wore white straw hats and ate cucumber sandwiches and lemonade. I was more than happy to donate my time and effort.

I started umpiring when I was a teenager the same way. Behind the pitcher. I think that was about 1983, when I was 13 years old. We got $5 a game to do that.

Baseball and football for me. I used to do softball, but gave it up when I realized I really despise most everything about the game.