Umpire not calling the game by the rules and no protests

[Agcy]

The umpire was not following "proper procedure." Batting out of order occured twice, once they bat out of order and the 2nd time they had the wrong number and only first name on the lead off hitter so no way to match it on the last name on the back of her jersey. The other coach came out and had a private conversation that I could hear and he admitted that they batted out of order. The umpire still allowed it. Then with circle violation, he sent the runner back instead of calling her out. Runner remained on third. I went out to the umpire and said "thats a circle violation right?" He said "Yes." And I replied "so then she's out right?" He then goes to the other coach and he explains to the coach that it's a circle violation and decides to send the runner back to second. This is a clear case of the umpire trying to give this rookie coach some slack. Already peeved knowing we weren't going to get the call, I gave up and walked back to the dugout. After the inning ended, I walked up to the ump and politely asked why he didnt call her out. His response was because "you delayed the game with the batting out of order questions and I'm going to call the game however I want to call it." So i said, "I understand, and how im interpreting this is you're going to make up rules as you go." Conversation ended there and I walked away.

This was an All Star tournament, not rec league. There was an entire rec league for warnings and screw ups by the coach. All Stars should be by the book. We had great umps all weekend, but this one guy was terrible.

If umpires don't call the game by the rules, then why doesn't my team bat out of order? Why doesnt my team run the bases with the ball in the circle? Might as well leave the bases early while we're at it. There was no screaming at the umpire.

Technically having the wrong number is not 'batting out of order'; it is a lineup card error - a warning the first time and then restricted if you have to fix it a second time. If you want to get technical, the umpire shouldn't have accepted the lineup card without #, First Initial, Last Name.

 

[Gtrips07]

Should be required watching

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[RADcatcher]

I get it people want to support umpires on the softball website hooray thank you for being umpires
BUT...
This whining about umpire's pay scale way overlooks the amount of people who have crappy jobs that have to deal with the public, lousy work environments, that get paid less than half as much as an Umpire per hour.

Umpire gets to be their own boss on the field how much is that worth?!!

Do see certain umpres that get their ears chewed off because they have lack of facilitation skills doing their job.

 

[RJK]

Where I live we have nice weather and play year round. Umpires regularly make $65-$75/ non HS game for roughly an hour and a half of work. Call it 2 hours with the time they have to show up before to be prepared (although often times they show up right before the game). Work 4 games and make $280. Our umpire shortage has umpires doing HS games in the afternoon and rec games in the evening during spring so you can easily umpire 2-3 games on the week day and more than that on the weekend. I've found many umpires won't come out for 1 game and only come out if it's multiple games. There is plenty of money to be made, even though its not a 40 hour a week job. I've worked jobs at times where we had worker shortages. To me, it was just an opportunity to make more money. If you worked the max you could and did 5 days a week (3 on the weekday and 2 on the weekend), you could easily make $4,760/month from a job you dont have to go to 40 hours a week. That is higher than the median income for a single person where I live. Again, i want to emphasize that we play year round. I realize that not everyone has the same opportunities, but lets not neglect the fact that the opportunity is there. Also as an independent contractor, isn't it nice to set your own schedule and go to work when you feel like it and take days off as needed? Everyone has to drive to their job (unless remote) and some have jobs have different job sites where they drive further. This isn't unique to umpires. Many jobs require licenses, degrees, annual fees, not just umpiring. I will say that umpiring has one of the lowest barriers to entry to start earning money. Umpires act like they're the only industry that gets screamed at their job. Try working retail or the restaurant industry. Its certainly NOT RIGHT, but certainly not unique to umpires. Bring your own water and lunch so you don't have to spend money at the event. If a TD won't let you bring it in, then you're working the worng tournaments (as coaches have pointed out in this thread playing the wrong tournaments). If I go out to lunch everyday at work, that money starts to add up. When I bring my own lunch, cost is significantly less.

You work for the tournament and provide a service to the customers who are the kids and the parents who actually put up the money up so you can get paid. Be gratful that you're able to make money off a kid's sport.

 

[Gtrips07]

I get it people want to support umpires on the softball website hooray thank you for being umpires
BUT...
This whining about umpire's pay scale way overlooks the amount of people who have crappy jobs that have to deal with the public, lousy work environments, that get paid less than half as much as an Umpire per hour.

Umpire gets to be their own boss on the field how much is that worth?!!
Do see certain umpres that get their ears chewed off because they have lack of facilitation skills doing their job.

You forget that being an umpire isn't the primary job for most umpires but a way to give back? If the pay was so great for the work, aren't we flush with umpires?

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[Gtrips07]

I get it people want to support umpires on the softball website hooray thank you for being umpires
BUT...
This whining about umpire's pay scale way overlooks the amount of people who have crappy jobs that have to deal with the public, lousy work environments, that get paid less than half as much as an Umpire per hour.

Umpire gets to be their own boss on the field how much is that worth?!!
Do see certain umpres that get their ears chewed off because they have lack of facilitation skills doing their job.

And Rad, why don't YOU umpire as well if the money is good? Sorry, but the supply curve for umpires is below the demand curve.

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[RADcatcher]

You forget that being an umpire isn't the primary job for most umpires but a way to give back? If the pay was so great for the work, aren't we flush with umpires?

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Think there is an Umpire shortage because the number of softball games has exploded!

Supply and demand changed.

Plenty of people have more than one job.

 

[RJK]

Technically having the wrong number is not 'batting out of order'; it is a lineup card error - a warning the first time and then restricted if you have to fix it a second time. If you want to get technical, the umpire shouldn't have accepted the lineup card without #, First Initial, Last Name.

If you only have first names on the line up, how do you prove the Suzy is actually not Ashley?

By the umpire accepting it with first names only, you're only further establishing my point that he was not a good umpire.

 

[RADcatcher]

And Rad, why don't YOU umpire as well if the money is good? Sorry, but the supply curve for umpires is below the demand curve.

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Years ago I did umpire!!!
However I recognized the role of me teaching softball served MORE of a role to help grow softball.


Yes the supply is less because there is
>>> a heck of a lot more softball games being played. Supply and demand changed.

 

[Agcy]

Where I live we have nice weather and play year round. Umpires regularly make $65-$75/ non HS game for roughly an hour and a half of work. Call it 2 hours with the time they have to show up before to be prepared (although often times they show up right before the game). Work 4 games and make with $280. Our umpire shortage has umpires doing HS games in the afternoon and rec games in the evening during spring so you can easily umpire 2-3 games on the week day and more than that on the weekend. I've found many umpires won't come out for 1 game and only come out if it's multiple games. There is plenty of money to be made, even though its not a 40 hour a week job. I've worked jobs at times where we had worker shortages. To me, it was just an opportunity to make more money. If you worked the max you could and did 5 days a week (3 on the weekday and 2 on the weekend), you could easily make $4,760/month from a job you dont have to go to 40 hours a week. That is higher than the median income for a single person where I live. Again, i want to emphasize that we play year round. I realize that not everyone has the same opportunities, but lets not neglect the fact that the opportunity is there. Also as an independent contractor, isn't it nice to set your own schedule and go to work when you feel like it and take days off as needed? Everyone has to drive to their job (unless remote) and some have jobs have different job sites where they drive further. This isn't unique to umpires. Many jobs require licenses, degrees, annual fees, not just umpiring. I will say that umpiring has one of the lowest barriers to entry to start earning money. Umpires act like they're the only industry that gets screamed at their job. Try working retail or the restaurant industry. Its certainly NOT RIGHT, but certainly not unique to umpires. Bring your own water and lunch so you don't have to spend money at the event. If a TD won't let you bring it in, then you're working the worng tournaments (as coaches have pointed out in this thread playing the wrong tournaments). If I go out to lunch everyday at work, that money starts to add up. When I bring my own lunch, cost is significantly less.

You work for the tournament and provide a service to the customers who are the kids and the parents who actually put up the money up so you can get paid. Be gratful that you're able to make money off a kid's sport.

$75/game
2 games/day
6 days/week
46 weeks/year
= $41,400

If you have an assignor that can support that for me, please forward me his contact information! In my neck of the woods, there aren't any weekday games (outside of HS season), and limited tournaments in July and practically none from Nov through March.

Look, I don't do it for the money. Would I do it if I wasn't paid - no. Would I do more if I got paid more - no. It is a 'hobby' that I enjoy doing to support a sport that I love. I have a full time job that I have to work around as well as other responsibilities that limit my availability.

But, we are talking about how to get a higher quality of umpire at games. The only real answer to that is getting more people interested in doing the job (hence the behavior of parents and coaches and such). Our local assignor made the comment that <10% of the people that start umpiring last more than 2 years. Now, ask yourself why. When you answer that question, maybe we can hold on to more umpires and the more umpires we have, the more picky we can be as to who is good enough.