The Decline of Umpiring

[radness]

One of many stories.
When I worked at a Starbucks in Palm Springs at 5:30am could not open the store on time because the night crew left the store in horrible condition.
At 5:30 am an elderly woman came to the locked doors and started rattling them back and forth.
I'm talking about with all her body might and physical strength trying to open a locked door... it was rattling back and forth. She was yelling out
'I want my passion tea.'
I went to the opposing side of the inside and said
I'm sorry ma'am I cannot open the door. give us about 10 or 15 minutes I need to get the store in ready condition all she did was yell mean crap.
And complain to the regional manager because the store didn't open on time. I don't know maybe I should have let her in so she could see how disgusting the store looked. But that would not have been the right thing to do either because the bathroom had some hazards going on.

Sometimes people have to make a decision and other people have no ability to understand decision.

 

[El Oso]

I've umped for our local Little League that my son plays for. You hear EVERYTHING behind the dish.. My favorites, "Don't worry Johnny, that was strike 4!" I've also talked with one of the tougher coaches to umpire a game for, right after the game. I told him that I umped his game because no one else would and that he should set a better example for his players and parents.. Everyone was chirping.

He response was that he felt my umpiring was biased because between innings, I wasn't over talking with his side as much as I was talking with the other side. "No $h!t, you've been difficult the whole game, why would I want to talk to you!" was my response..

This is the best thing I've heard in a while! Good for you for saying what other's wouldn't have the nerve to say. Didn't seem to help, lol, but maybe it will sink in and do him some good.

 

[El Oso]

1. 1 softball, 1 baseball, and 1 basketball
2. They cited treatment as the primary reason. It got to the point that their compensation was no longer worth the aggravation.

1. Ok it's good to hear that only 1 of them was involved in softball because I (maybe incorrectly) have always thought that softball parents/coaches were the best behaved of the major youth sports. Not that they are all great, but the best.

2. This is a problem with any side gig. When it's not your main source of income, it's easy to quit out of aggravation. Really not much you can do about that aspect. Not as if we can pay them enough to make it a full-time gig.

 

[radness]

2. This is a problem with any side gig. When it's not your main source of income, it's easy to quit out of aggravation. Really not much you can do about that aspect. Not as if we can pay them enough to make it a full-time gig.

Great point!

Notice long-term travel coaches, older coaches, are able to coach because they have a good pension retirement plan.

 

[El Oso]

Great point!

Notice long-term travel coaches, older coaches, are able to coach because they have a good pension retirement plan.

I mean, not to be argumentative with some other folks, but being an umpire is a JOB. It's WORK. Not supposed to be FUN. Set expectations accordingly. Right? Lol....... Expect some backlash from folks, just like you would if you were a server at Starbucks or a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman. Anyone expecting 100% rainbows and sunshine from their JOB is living in a fantasy world.

 

[El Oso]

I have a proposal that would make life easier for umpires. Move all bleachers out from behind the plate and put them down the foul lines. We played on a field like that one time and the umps never heard a word from the parents. Bet they all LOVE working that field!

 

[radness]

I mean, not to be argumentative with some other folks, but being an umpire is a JOB. It's WORK. Not supposed to be FUN. Set expectations accordingly. Right? Lol....... Expect some backlash from folks, just like you would if you were a server at Starbucks or a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman. Anyone expecting 100% rainbows and sunshine from their JOB is living in a fantasy world.

Absolutely get that reasoning!

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

I have a proposal that would make life easier for umpires. Move all bleachers out from behind the plate and put them down the foul lines. We played on a field like that one time and the umps never heard a word from the parents. Bet they all LOVE working that field!

The only parent I ever kicked was a guy who got abusive about a tag play at 3rd base from his view from the right field foul line....10u rec.

 

[Strike2]

I mean, not to be argumentative with some other folks, but being an umpire is a JOB. It's WORK. Not supposed to be FUN. Set expectations accordingly. Right? Lol....... Expect some backlash from folks, just like you would if you were a server at Starbucks or a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman. Anyone expecting 100% rainbows and sunshine from their JOB is living in a fantasy world.

If we're talking about MLB umpires, you're correct on all counts. Youth sports? Nope...not even close. While any youth sports official should take pride in doing that job (notice small cap) as well as possible, it's pretty close to volunteer work. It had better be more enjoyable than not because there are plenty of other options for making better money.

Even a server at Starbucks is going to find other work if they take enough grief...probably much faster than any youth softball umpire. If you haven't noticed, service industry employees are getting harder to find and, consequently, getting paid more. Compare what's required of the local Starbucks barista to the knowledge and skill-set required of a good umpire.

 

[radness]

In my experience.
Working at Starbucks was harder than umpiring.

Actually the barista at starbucks interacts with hundreds of people hour. At one point we were instructed to look every customer in the eye when handing their beverage saying their name. While we were at a working pace of not having a line of people that had to wait longer than 3 minutes from standing in the line to receiving their drink.
100 customers per half hour.
Burn milk recently? Makes for a bad reaction!!!

Could go into the other job responsibilities but probably not necessary.

Umpiring pays better.