Football vs. baseball or other sports

[PeteBooth]

As you can tell, I am not a regular of this forum. I am a regular at the baseball Forum where I currently officiate only one sport, obviously baseball. Some of my friends who umpire baseball and officiate football want me to join the football association next year. In addition to HS games, you have Pop Warner and other youth leagues.

So my question to those who have umpired baseball and officiate football, what's your take on the 2? I know football is TIMED compared to baseball and in addition the youth Leagues pay cash and it's not uncommon for some of my freinds to officiate 3/4 Pop Warner games and make good money (cash in Pocket)

I have also been told that coaches in football are much more vociferous than in baseball. In other words, football coaches especially at the varsity level get right in your face more so than in baseball.

In addition, what about officiating other sports? Basketball, Vollyball, LaCross, Field Hocky etc.

Just trying to gather info Thanks

Pete Booth

[insatty]

Pete:

My primary officiating is HS and JC football, while I umpire many more HS and youth baseball games. My take is that football is much more fun, challenging and much easier on the temperament.

Flank officials can hear the coaches, but generally not the fans. Further, the culture is different; baseball tolerates harassment, and football doesn't. The penalties are so different: 15-yard dead-ball unsportsmanlike foul can really hurt a team, while warnings and ejections in baseball not only rarely hurt but are used by coaches to inspire! By the end of an extended baseball season, I'm yearning for football.

As you're one of the great baseball rules guys, I'd be interested in your take on rules mastering. To me, football rules are so much harder than baseball to really learn, especially penalty enforcement. And, there is so much more judgment that must be applied in football penalty-calling. For instance, I used a football-rules-judgment analogy on the baseball forum when at issue was calling a minor infraction (barely missing home plate after a game-winning homerun) that only the umpire can see, and I was lambasted in ad hominem tones for suggesting that a foul such as football holding should not be called if no disadvantage is gained.

Next, football officiating is an amateur avocation. Even guys that advance to the NFL have other main careers, as opposed to baseball umpires that must make it their careers to advance. And I don't know about other organizations, but I find our HS baseball organization so much more political and subjective in ratings than in our football organization.

Lastly, my HS varsity football games have thousands of fans watching, while my HS varsity baseball games have less than one hundred. The youth football games I do on Saturdays have more spectators than most HS varsity baseball games I do. So the pure pleasure in officiating in football cannot be discounted.

Any how, that is my take. I'm sorry for the lengthy response, but I have many times used my lawyer mind to analyze why I so much more enjoy football officiating--and you're the first one to ever ask! (I pitched two years in college, but only played football through HS--so it's not that I played more football.) If you do start officiating football, please share your thoughts between that and baseball.

[SDUMP]

As a multi-sport official (FB, BBB/GBB, VB, SP Softball and formerly BB), I love working FB just for the fact that you have three/four other officials working with you. Not only is it fun during the game, but driving to and from the games with your partners makes for an enjoyable Friday night.
The only drawback is that as a crew you may only work 8-9 games per season, where you make work 150-200 SB games, 40-50 BB games and possibly 30-40 VB games, so you do have to dig into the rules/casebook a lot more.
My advice - try it for a season and I'll bet that you won't want the season to end (unless you have a playoff game in six inches of snow - which seems to happen quite often in SD).

[GarthB]

Pete:

Nearly two years ago, in Ocotober of 2000 to be more precise, you asked a similar question and it became the basis of an article I wrote for RightSports. In it, I compared my feelings and observations of baseball offciating and football officiating. At that time I was a 16 year veteran of umpiring and a rookie football official. Two years later, my opinions remain the same.

Many umpires do not play well with others. Partners are often viewed more as competitors, even in amateur ball. It is said, only half in jest, that your parnter would step over your dead body if it meant a better assignment.

Umpires are trained not to get help. Individualism is encouraged. It's YOUR call, make it and, right or wrong, live it with it.

Baseball is becoming a solitary sport at the amateur level. Most HS games have crowds in the two figures and youth ball seldom has hundreds of fans except in the post season. Even college games in my area are lucky to have over 100 fans in attendance.

I average over 130 baseball games in a seven month season. Just from the exposure, the rules become second nature quicker and umpires are more apt to engage in third world possibilities discussions and contests.

The membership of my baseball association is sharply divided between high school and summer ball umpires. With high school games starting at 3:00, officials have to have the kind of jobs that are over by 2:00 or have the type of position that offers them the freedom to come and go as they please. However, in the summer, everybody can make the 5:30 and 6:00 games.

In football, partners are real partners. We work together during a game...ALL the time. Questions are welcomed. Help is welcomed. your partners are there to work WITH you and support you. The attention is to the CREW, not the official.

And if the backjudge saw something that you as the wing did not, you can change your call without being made to feel like an idiot.

Even junior high football games have larger attendance than varsity baseball. Varsity football games in my area have 5,000 plus fans. You feed off the crowd. The enthusiasm of the spectators and their enjoyment of the activity is contagious. You have fun. A visceral kind, not just cerebral.

I average around 75 football games a season, but I am told that is the exception. Most officials in my association average 40. There is not the frequency or exposure to the rules that one has in baseball, but this doesn't mean we don't study them or know them. What it does mean is that we usually don't spend a lot of time on esoteric, one chance in a gazillion made up plays. We spend our resources on what DOES happen and prepare for it.

And, with most games occuring at night and on week-ends, there is more of a mix of personalities working all the games. We don't have to rely heavily on those individuals with the freedom to come and go as they please to do many games.

Baseball is my first love, aside from my bride, Joanne. I won't give it up until I have to. But I have to admit that baseball season seems to drag on while football season is far too short.


Last year I also began working basketball. But that's another story.

[Edited by GarthB on Sep 9th, 2002 at 01:50 PM]

[insatty]

Garth:

I couldn't agree more with your observations. I expected some harshly edged comments that I find on the baseball forum, but found truly astute observations.

[JRutledge]

I think it depends on the level you do. If you are doing Pop Warner or LL, you might not be having as much fun. Not because the games are not fun, but the coaches and parents can be a bit much. They tend to treat every game like the World Series or Super Bowl with millions of dollars on the line. The higher you go the more fun I think it is because there is much more at stake. HS and College coaches are usually getting paid some kind of money and are accountable to a school or school district. They cannot act any kind of way without sometimes serious consequences, so their behavior is much more controlled and reserved. LL and Pop Warner can be very mixed and out of control.

Both sports have their advantages and disadvantages. It really comes down to what you love. Football is mainly about a position that you work. If you work a middle position, you do not deal with coaches that much. If you work the wings then your interaction is greater and more intense. Baseball you are subject to the same intensity no matter where you are on the field.

If you umpire football, you can definitely officiate football. Once you learn the ins and outs of football it can be great fun. At least you will have a better idea when the game will end.

Peace

[sportswriter]

Originally posted by insatty
Pete:Next, football officiating is an amateur avocation. Even guys that advance to the NFL have other main careers...

As I recall, starting wage for an NFL referee is something like $60,000 US per year.

That's a damn fine annual income.

Starting wage for a CFL ref is $300 per game. Canadian. Which kind turns into enough for a powerbar and a gatorade south of the border.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally posted by sportswriter

As I recall, starting wage for an NFL referee is something like $60,000 US per year.

That's a damn fine annual income.

Not exactly.

1st year officials get under 1,500USD per game.
Given a 17 week season with 1 week off, it works out to less than 24,000USD - not bad, but nothing to make a living off of.

[bluezebra]

There's nothing like a Friday night, with two intense rivals, and packed stands, to get the juices flowing. And the smell of popcorn from the snack bar to get the saliva flowing.

For excitement, it's football, hands down.

bob

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by bluezebra
There's nothing like a Friday night, with two intense rivals, and packed stands, to get the juices flowing. And the smell of popcorn from the snack bar to get the saliva flowing.

For excitement, it's football, hands down.

bob

Well around here in a Basketball Mecca, everything you describe on a Tuesday night. And you can do that 3 times a week. I love football a lot, but it ends too soon. And you cannot do it all year.

Peace