Transitioning 3-man to 2-man crew.

[Rich]

I have some experience trying to organize officials to demand more money from an adult baseball league. A few people told me they thought the pay was quite fair (some of the worst umpires, BTW). Other decided they could pick up more games once the troublemakers went away.

As a group, we eat our own.

[JetMetFan]

Originally Posted by Rich

I have some experience trying to organize officials to demand more money from an adult baseball league. A few people told me they thought the pay was quite fair (some of the worst umpires, BTW). Other decided they could pick up more games once the troublemakers went away.

As a group, we eat our own.

You go that right about eating our own.

When I lived in GA from '96 until the end of '99 the going rate for varsity/JV was $35/$27. We tried to get other groups to organize to effect some sort of increase. Of course, one group offered to do games for $30/$25 and that killed the plan.

As for rec ball, forget it. Some guys were paying $10/game at that time. The guy I worked for did $20. I worked four stop-time games on a single night three times and then said no more. I valued my time and, at that moment, my time with my young children too much to be out of the house for 7.5 hours to make $80. Frankly, it also wasn't going to help me become a better official.

[Kansas Ref]

Well you sorta make it sound like we are "prostituting" ourselves with these game assignments that are less than NFHS level type of games.

I guess we must realize that each ref has different objectives--both short and long term in terms of developing in this avocation. For some refs, their main goal is just to make movie money, short bill pays money, and/or supplemental living expenses money. For such Refs it is: "hey man, I just baby-sitting these kids keeping them from killing each other out here for 40 minutes". Whereas for others it is: "each time I am out here, I'm focusing on 2 parts of my reffing game to improve upon and I will be self-critical of my performance".

[Rich]

When I worked on Sunday, I did 4 games.

We switched on most fouls. I ran for all 4 games (they were JV boys, so it wasn't as fast as what I usually work).

We started about 20 minutes behind schedule. By the end of our 4th game, we were 10 minutes ahead. 3 minutes pregame and 3 minute halftimes will do that. We also only had one team in 4 games reach the bonus - once.

For me - I had some fun, got some exercise, and made $100. I wasn't looking to improve anything -- I was working 2-person and if I was really looking to use this to improve, I would've brought a third person along with me. I've only worked 6 games since March.

[Kansas Ref]

Originally Posted by Rich

When I worked on Sunday, I did 4 games.

We switched on most fouls. I ran for all 4 games (they were JV boys, so it wasn't as fast as what I usually work).

We started about 20 minutes behind schedule. By the end of our 4th game, we were 10 minutes ahead. 3 minutes pregame and 3 minute halftimes will do that. We also only had one team in 4 games reach the bonus - once.

For me - I had some fun, got some exercise, and made $100. I wasn't looking to improve anything -- I was working 2-person and if I was really looking to use this to improve, I would've brought a third person along with me. I've only worked 6 games since March.

*enjoy your disney vacay with that ref money! Mr. Rich