Why don't we have more umpires?

My parent recruitment efforts are failing, largely because the parents aren't being informed of clinics and our need for umpires. The two umpire clinics we've held have had dismal turnouts. The only parents who came were T-Ball parents. In talking to managers from several divisions, it became apparent that word of the clinics wasn't passed down from the commissioners. The managers had no idea these clinics even happened. Parents on the teams aren't aware of our need for volunteer umpires. In talking with parents around the fields, they are generally surprised to hear that our umpires are volunteers and that we need more.

There are 270+ kids playing in our league. I am the only parent that is umpiring games. That means there's parents of 268 kids that could be umpiring. The coaches and managers can be let off the hook -- they're doing enough work already, but that still means there's almost 200 kids who have parents who could potentially umpire. But they won't do it if they aren't asked. So far my method of asking through the division commissioners isn't working. Commissioners, if you want umpires, you need to help me find people to become umpires.

It's no wonder that the parents don't want to participate. They see how the umpires are treated by the coaches. I'm surprised we're able to find any umpires at all. In fact, when I took this job on two years ago, I was given a list of umpires by our previous UIC and additional lists from people at district **. I contacted these men and women and asked them to umpire for us. All but one refused, saying that they'd received too much abuse from our league.

I managed to scrape up some umpires last year, only to have two of the experienced umpires quit mid-season because of the way they were treated on the field. So if you were wondering why the two older guys who did many of our Major and Junior games last year haven't done any this year, now you know.

Over the last few years I've umpired games for other little leagues, in LL tournaments, men's amateur and semi-pro ball, and high schools. I've worked soccer games from rec up through competitive travel teams. The most rude, disrespectful, and nasty coaches I've come across have been from our league.

I've fielded numerous complaints this year from umpires about the coaches. I've counseled them to eject a coach who's out of hand. No warnings will be given, and I'd recommend that coaches with ejections not be allowed to coach in the post season.

Remember that these umpires are volunteers. They're not getting paid and they don't have the training of professional umpires. They're doing the best they can. They're going to miss calls. They're going to make mistakes on the rules. It doesn't take long watching a professional baseball game to see a pro umpire make a mistake or miss something. Those guys have hundreds of hours of training, years and years of experience, and do over 100 games a year. There's 4 of them on a field. The single umpire with minimal training that does 20 games a year is going to make some mistakes. If they were professional umpires they'd be working professional ball, not watching 10 year olds walk in runs and drop pop flies.

Also remember that they don't *have* to be here. There's other places they can go. And as you've seen in recent weeks they're choosing to do so. Why would you go to a game and get yelled at when you can go somewhere else and enjoy the game?