Umpire pool too shallow?

[wakenfoozle]

My daughter had the weekend off so we went to a tournament abt 30mins from home to watch some of her friends and just enjoy being at the park. We witnessed some of the worse calls all day long by the whole group that I have ever witnessed. The crew consisted of guys that had barely ever shaved to guys with grey on the face

Is the rising amount of tournaments causing the umpire pool to become too shallow? I know that umpires are human and make mistakes but I really wonder if being able to pass a written test to become an ump is enough.

Simple calls being blown is what makes me question like this. Would love to hear thoughts

 

[3bmama]

I had never thought of that, but I bet you are right on. The amount of games being played on the weekends is crazy. It has to be close to impossible to even have enough bodies, let alone knowledgable ones.

 

[Sparky Guy]

At this time of the year most of the best umpires are working HS and college games. Another contributing factor is the assignor for umpires. There are assignors who seem to attract sub-standard umpires for whatever reasons. When I see these guys I cringe knowing it is going to be a rough weekend.

I know in my area there are two main guys. One has the HS contract and his guys are good for the most part. The other guy has the type you describe. They may be nice guys, but they can be some really terrible umpires.

 

[nanotech14]

They will also admit they are not a diverse group. One young lady I know gave umpiring a try, but the coaches and parents were on her so much, she did not make it past the first season.

Maybe she wasn't very good. It can't because she was female right? I know you would never make assumption about a persons sex.

 

[Comp]

I have seen it first hand, coaches will say things to a kid umpire they would never say to an adult. Make it a young female umpire and they will be merciless. My daughter umpired for about a year and walked away after a crazy mom followed her into the parking lot.

Our local high school association is down to about 50% of the umpires they had 5 years ago. Registration fees have gone up, pay finally went up a little this year but had been stagnant for years. Some guys just aged out and not enough new guys are attracted by what the pay is and there was those that don't want to pay for the background check.

 

[Sparky Guy]

I have seen it first hand, coaches will say things to a kid umpire they would never say to an adult. Make it a young female umpire and they will be merciless. My daughter umpired for about a year and walked away after a crazy mom followed her into the parking lot.

Our local high school association is down to about 50% of the umpires they had 5 years ago. Registration fees have gone up, pay finally went up a little this year but had been stagnant for years. Some guys just aged out and not enough new guys are attracted by what the pay is and there was those that don't want to pay for the background check.

One of the BIG things with HS games for an umpire is to be able to be there for a 4:30 start time games during the week. Not everyone has that flexibility in their work schedule.

One umpire I know goes into work early during the HS & College season so he can leave early to umpire during the week. He lives a ways from the area where a lot of tournaments are held so he said he wont go unless he's guaranteed 4-5 games for a day. Otherwise it's not worth his time.

I wish one of the associations would make it mandatory that coaches pass a rules test. Not necessarily the same one the umpires take. Rather, one that covers a lot of the base rules of the game and addresses the rule myths. I think that would go a long way with the coaches understanding the rule book.

 

[redhotcoach]

Yes. I volunteer cordinating Umps with clubs and tourneys....also my soccer dd refs soccer games. The huge increase in number of games in all sports is tough to get enough officials. It's just going to have to be a large increase in pay for them. Here, with summer baseball/softball school ball, you have to find middle school, 8th, 9th, and JV umps that are available during morning/afternoon on weekdays.

 

[redbirdone]

The three things that upset me with umpires is appearance, laziness, and not being in the game mentally. The ump who shows up wearing jeans, or worse. The ump who won't take more than a step or two and makes a call all the way across the field. And the ump who is paying more attention to who's in the crowd or what's going on at the field next to us. We've had girls who get four strikes, girls called out on two strikes, girls walk on five pitches and three pitches. Umpires who announce "one out" when there are two and it takes 5 minutes to straighten it out. That's unacceptable.

Leave your phone in the car, or at the very least in your equipment bag. Tuck in your shirt, look like you want to be there and, for pete's sake, be decisive. If you're doing a travel ball or high school game, don't joke with the parents between innings, don't dance to the walkup music.

The "best" umpires aren't the ones who get every call right, it's the ones who look sharp, act sharp, are loud, decisive and hustle to get in position to have the best possible view to make a call. They leave it all on the field. I just think there are less and less of these people around who want to do this. Just like politics, umpiring has turned into a profession where it's hard to get good, honest, hard working people to get involved because of the microscope you are under.

 

[redbirdone]

One of the BIG things with HS games for an umpire is to be able to be there for a 4:30 start time games during the week. Not everyone has that flexibility in their work schedule.

I did high school baseball my last year of undergrad and grad school. Once I graduated and entered the workforce...bye bye high school umpiring as I was in a corporate environement. I also had to give up rec league as my job required some travel, some of which was short notice. Can't tell them you'll be there next week and then call them two days before and say sorry. Had to give that up.

 

[JAD]

I always wondered how softball umpires got their start. I never would have given softball a second thought until my DD started playing....