Similar, though not exact situation that I was privy to. Assigner asks official why he never has availability for all four days of a specific tournament weekend. Official tells assigner that he did not want a "full" schedule because by the middle of the third day he would not be as good an official and that the kids deserved the best. The assigner responds, "And that's why you are one of the best."

I should qualify that the tournaments I speak of are two days only. And weekend only. So that does affect being able to do more per day since it's only two days.

I don't do the 4-5 day tourns bc I don't want to burn vacation time to work a 2nd job. Lot of TD's around here demand full availability so I have found that it is easier to have no availability at all than fight that fight.

And yes, I think the profession/avocation of officiating is getting older. At 37 and having 12 years in, I'm one of the youngest guys in our group of officials. We def need some new blood bc there is that mentality "if you schedule it, they will come"

There's at least 1 NH guy that I know of that's working the 16U National in Delaware.

He's no spring chicken so I'm hoping he has a light schedule in those temperatures.

My first National was in Oregon. I thought, "cool". Far from cool - they set records for high temperatures the week I was there. I worked at least 2 games during 1 day where temps were 105. Don't know about the humidity.

Games start Wed., should be down to 92. :rolleyes: Perfect for fall chickens. ;)

"Games" is not a uniform unit of measure. There are timed games, and the time limit can range from very short (65-70 minutes) to irrelevant in most cases (1:45+). There are also games that can end in a tie, and games that must have a winner. Among the latter, there are games that use the tie breaker rule and games that play extra innings until someone wins (I've never seen this in summer ball, but it is the rule for high school play here).

It is relatively common here for summer tournaments hosted by a local fastpitch association to have relatively short time limits (70 min is fairly common), spaced every 1:30, where games can end in a tie for pool play.

Such a game is not comparable to a 1:45 time limit / 7 innings game where there must be a winner.

I've always umpired because I enjoy it. The money is nice, but it is far from lucrative, so if I was looking for an actual 2nd income, it would not be from umpiring.

My "personal" limit has gone down with the years, but even so, if there are short time limits, 5 or so in a day is very doable if there is a break in there somewhere. If there is no break, 4 is the max I'm comfortable with (both physically and job-quality wise).

In extreme heat (we do get that here sometimes), the need for breaks increases and the daily limit decreases as a general rule.

It is rare for umpires around here to be willing to commit to being available start to finish, so the "ideal" of 3 man rotations for 2 umpire games is not a realistic scenario for most tournaments. Besides, the vast majority of our tournaments are single umpire games until the semis (and in many cases until the championship game). This is due to tournaments not being willing to pay the umpires, but I suspect that if this changed overnight, there would not be enough umpires anyway.

I am only talking about the easy ones it seems. 70 min time limit, pool play ends in tie. 7-8 of those would be equivalent to 4-5 of the much longer games some have mentioned. Only once did I do a "throw out the clock/all 7 innings" tournament. Once=not again.

Of course I find it enjoyable (most days) and it is lucrative compared to most other 2nd jobs where you don't have the freedom an independent contractor has. I pick where and when and
Other 2nd jobs don't allow that.

High humidity. Chance of thunderstorms from 20% to 50% the remainder of the week/weekend.

High 80's

Our entire high school season is 7 innings, no clock, no tie breaker, must have a winner. Of course, they are 2 man during the season, 3 man during the last several rounds of the post season, and at most double headers. For HS tournaments, they do add a time limit (fairly long) and use a tie breaker. (The post season, though, remains 7 innings, no time limit, no tie breakers; there have been some marathon games in the state tournament over the years.)

Umpiring these "real" softball games is a lot of fun.

I did one tournament this year with 7 innings, no clock, and a 3 man rotation for 2 man games. A full round for the day was 6 games, of which I and my partners each did four in the rotation. This tournament went to 3 man for the final rounds on Sunday.

Again, this tournament was a lot of fun.

Personally, I prefer the real game vs the unnatural time limit games. There is more time spent per game, but generally that is offset by a more enjoyable game, breaks, and somewhat higher pay.

Until they become surreal. :)

Well, true. MSHSL has a 10 after 5 mercy rule. But, mercy rules are useless if both teams are awful!

After one particularly brutal game last year, I was proposing a 25 after 5 umpire mercy rule:

The game is over if:
1. The runs scored by both teams combined is 25 or more runs after 5 innings;
2. The average time per inning for the first 5 innings is 25 or more minutes.

:D

I guess that would apply to my 3 hr 26 min game, at 33 - 23. :rolleyes:

Dakota, I was only talking about travel ball stuff. Of course varsity play is 7 innings, no time, winner a must. And I also like varsity play better than travel, it pays $60 vs $35. And if it is decent play, can be done in around an hour. My fastest ever has been 58 minutes for a full 7 innings.

Of course, my worst ever (a record for our group of guys) is 3:20, with a score of 29-25. It was so long we canceled the JV game that was scheduled for after it.