Minor League Umpires are on strike
The minor league umpires declared a strike on Friday, March 03. Read some interesting articles about the conditions of a minor league official.
Follow all the Minor League negiotiations at http://amlu.org/
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Vestal's Mack hopes he made the right call
Umpire puts dream on hold to back strike
By Kevin Stevens
Press & Sun-Bulletin
Not that Chris Mack is unappreciative of his employment opportunity hereabouts, but spring approaches, which means this young man's fancy turns from carpet cleaning to umpiring baseball.
If all went according to plan, Mack, a 27-year-old Vestal resident, would be bound for Florida about now, off to call balls and strikes or determine whether the base stealer's fingertip touched the bag ahead of the second baseman's sweep of a tag.
Instead, Mack his 200-plus brethren in The Association of Minor League Umpires have voted to authorize a strike and have opted out of working baseball spring training.
The umpires' contract with Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., expired in November, and the sides have yet to come upon an agreement for 2006. Concessions sought by the union include a pay raise.
Mack, in 2005 a first-year umpire in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, stands firmly behind the union. But by doing so, he has rolled the dice on his dream.
If an agreement is not reached?
"I'll work local games, hopefully don't get released," he said. "Hopefully they don't find a replacement for me.
"It's tough. I'm willing to back my union, but I know if they were going to replace somebody, it'd be from the bottom up. We're easy to replace because we're not that experienced. Knowing that is a little scary for me."
A baseball nut as far back as he can remember, Mack has umpired the sport since age 13, beginning by volunteering at the Little League level. He joined the Endicott Umpires Chapter at age 16 and gradually advanced through the ranks.
Following costly sessions at the Jim Evans School of Umpiring at Kissimmee, Fla. - which set him back upward of $3,000 per six-week stint in 2004 and 2005 - and subsequent successful showing at the 10-day PBUC evaluation course, he got the call to pro ball last year.
Labor strife notwithstanding, Mack was to begin this season back in the NY-Penn League, with expectations of a promotion to either the Long-A South Atlantic League or Midwest League - a natural progression, he said.
Instead, he waits, monitors the situation and eyes the opening of baseball season on the local front. At present, his schedule calls for him to open March 28 at Broome Community College, with high school assignments forthcoming.
From Mack's perspective, some of the wrongs the umpires' union is seeking to right:
•"Our old contract, every year we were in the minors, we got a $100 raise," he said. "I made $1,800 a month last year. If I work this year, I'd make $1,900 a month. Some guys get to Triple-A in 7-8 years, you're only looking at $2,500 a month for six months. He's got a wife and kids. And they raised the (cost of) insurance."
•"I made $60 per day last year umpiring. I get one day off a month. My offseason job, I get paid $10 per hour - do the math. It's ridiculous. High school baseball, I'd get paid $68 to do a varsity game, now $69. And I'm doing a professional baseball game for $60."
•Mack said last New York-Penn League season, his per diem was $20.
"They expect you to be a finely-tuned athlete as an umpire, and they give you $20 per day. That's McDonald's three meals per day, and you're lucky to get that for $20. ... They feed you at the park, but to be honest, chicken fingers and hamburgers and hot dogs get old."
•Health insurance: He said for umpires working rookie league or Low-A ball - including the New York-Penn League - health insurance is not included in the present contract.
A member of Vestal High's Class of '96, Mack expects no tears shed on his behalf. He is well aware the job and, to some extent, the lifestyle of a professional baseball umpire has inherent benefits.
Foremost, he is paid to play a role in the game he loves. When he and his umpiring partner are not traveling from one venue to the next, his mornings and early afternoons are generally free -freedom that helped him lop eight or so strokes to his present golf handicap of 12.
Should his vision of one day making it to the big leagues come about, big bucks and accompanying status will follow.
However, all is not peaches and cream along the way.
Spectators have been known to spew abuse on the boys in blue, particularly on, say, dollar-beverage night. Players and managers tend to test the newcomers, push them, sensing they'll get away with just a bit more from the rookie perhaps uncomfortable with confrontation. Any level short of Class AA calls for a two-man umpiring crew - demanding under any conditions, and more so when temperatures climb and innings mount.
Those two umpires are virtually stitched together at the hip for the length of the season, logging miles in one automobile, sharing rooms in Super 8's and the like.
All told, Mack concludes, "We have a great job, don't get me wrong. I love my job, I love walking out on that field, I love seeing fans there."
However, Mack and his mates in the umpires union feel they're being taken advantage of.
"We haven't had a raise in 10 years. That's just not right," he said. " ... They think they can replace us, 220 guys and they think they can replace us.
"They want to bully us around."
George Yund, a lawyer representing the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., shared that organization's stance with The Associated Press.
"Every umpire hired into the major leagues came from the minors," Yund said. "It's like being paid to go to school for the diploma and training you need for the chance at a very well-paid job."
Yund added, "When they first unionized, they agreed with us on realistic maximum numbers of years in each level of play, and told us they wanted evaluations that let them know as soon as possible that they would not make it to the big leagues. This time, in both their rhetoric and the proposals they made, they talk about minor league employment as though it is a year-round job in a lifetime career. That's simply not the case. It is a seasonal apprenticeship."
As for the chances of settling the labor dispute, Mack remains optimistic, hopeful that though what he described as a stalemate at present gives way to an agreement.
"(Teams) will go to spring training, and there have got to be teams that will be complaining during spring training," he said of the absence of professional umpires.