outside protector

[Dakota]

Actually, Rich's view is rampant around here.

Not so much the "whoring" himself out part, but the unwillingness to sit. It seems getting umpires assigned to tournaments has a lot of dealing with whiny umpires and their "special" needs... can't work before noon, must be done by noon, want to do 4 and out, short of money, so want to work 7 in a row, yadda, yadda.

You couldn't PAY me enough to be an assignor and have to deal with this crap. Too much babysitting and appeasing of umpires than I have the patience for.

I don't know Rich, but I don't know anyone who is better after 4 games than 90% of the other umpires on their first game. He must be working with some set of crappy umpires.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Actually, Rich's view is rampant around here.

Not so much the "whoring" himself out part, but the unwillingness to sit. It seems getting umpires assigned to tournaments has a lot of dealing with whiny umpires and their "special" needs... can't work before noon, must be done by noon, want to do 4 and out, short of money, so want to work 7 in a row, yadda, yadda.

You couldn't PAY me enough to be an assignor and have to deal with this crap. Too much babysitting and appeasing of umpires than I have the patience for.

I don't know Rick, but I don't know anyone who is better after 4 games than 90% of the other umpires on their first game. He must be working with some set of crappy umpires.

I'm sorry I'm going down this path -- one more post, I promise. I don't even work softball, so it's probably just a bit different for you folks.

Most top-notch college/HS baseball umpires don't touch that crap around here. So you end up with guys who are not very good on their best day. Calling balls and strikes at the youth level isn't exactly heavy lifting if you have good timing and call a good, aggressive zone.

Hey, I'm the one who's the independent contractor. Either I work the way I want to work OR I shrug and spend the day with my family. I don't *need* the money (it's nice to have on vacation, but a day at my day job pays more than even the longest day of umpiring could) -- they need me more. So either they use me the way I want OR they have more slots to fill. Supply and demand and all that.

We have leagues where they'll call at 11AM and say that the field won't be ready (usually because they don't show up at the field before 11AM to check the condition) for the 1PM start -- they're moving the game back to 2 or 3PM. I take 1PM games so I can have dinner with my family on Sundays. When they move the start time, I always tell them I can't do it and to find someone else.

I hear a lot of people complain about assignors and all the power they have in the assignor / umpire relationship. That's simply not true. It's because the umpire allows the assignor to have that power. But you have to be willing to not work once in a while....