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So, what's fair here?


RichMSN
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I just found out that our state thinks that umpires should finish suspended playoff games for free.  They emailed out a reminder of the policy -- if the original umpires come back and finish the game on a subsequent day, they are only to be paid mileage (45¢/mile round trip for one driver).  However, if the original umpire(s) are not available, then the replacement is to be paid a full game fee as well as mileage.

Really?

I drove 124 miles (roundtrip) to work a regional.  We got 7 outs in and then sat and waited and I banged it about 40 minutes later.  They asked me if I could come back at 1:30PM the next day to finish it.  At the time I wasn't aware of this policy and neither was (and maybe is) the school.  I assign for 24 schools here in the regular season and our policy would be to pay whoever came back a full game check.

Another thing I noticed was that they only pay mileage in the postseason if the umpires drive there and don't start the game.  In the regular season, if umpires arrive, they're paid a full game check.

Can someone tell me one reason why someone would go back and finish a suspended game under these circumstances?

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I don't think anyone can honestly say why they would drive 124 miles round trip with no expectation of receiving pay for the game because that is just silly.  A piss poor policy if you ask me.

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Looking at it from a business/economic view point.

 

IMHO - what would be fair would be a prorata fee for both games.  What the prorata would look like I'm not sure.

 

Maybe 1/3 fee for a game suspended in 2 or fewer innings, 1/2 for 3 - 4 or fewer, 3/4 for 5-6

Then balance of the game at least 1/2 fee no matter how many innings left, 3/4 if 3-5 and full fee if 6 or more.

 

 

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Around my neck of the woods, if you start a game, you get the full game fee; whether you play 1 inning or 7 innings is irrelevant.  If we arrive and the game never starts, we get 1/2 fee.  As far as suspension of games, our association tries to give the game back to the original officials. I'm not sure how they are paid, but I remember finishing a suspended game a couple years ago, and we only worked 5 outs and got a full game fee.

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For our association if you arrive to the game site (an hour before at most) and it gets whacked (before the game, once the game starts, etc.) you are paid the whole game fee.  This is the contractual agreement the schools approve prior to being assigned by our assigner/association.

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Regular season:

If we arrive and the game doesn't start, the umpire gets paid a full game fee.

Our conference (the one I assign) codified a suspended game policy this year (which I wrote myself): 

If you go to finish a suspended game prior to a regularly scheduled game, you get $10 an inning up to the full game fee (which right now is $60).  We had a crew go back to finish a softball game this year that was 17-3 in the middle of the fourth inning -- the crew was going to need to get six outs at the most (realistically).  This was followed with a regularly scheduled game.  They asked me what the fee should be, I told them $100 each ($40 for the 4 innings remaining in the first game and a full game fee for the second game) -- the fact that there's a run rule involved means nothing from a contractual standpoint.  The school wasn't that impressed with my logic, but that's OK.

Our policy also says that if it's the ONLY reason umpires are showing up, they get a full game check.  I had a friend work 4 outs last year in about 15 minutes for the full game check.

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4 hours ago, RichMSN said:

I'll receive something -- at most $50+ for mileage.  But this was a playoff game.

I'm absolutely amazed by this.  I wonder who dreams up such official-unfriendly policies.

Oh, that's an easy one; it's someone that doesn't have to do it.....

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5 hours ago, RichMSN said:

Can someone tell me one reason why someone would go back and finish a suspended game under these circumstances?

Because if you don't bend over and take it, you'll look petty and could become an embarrassment to your association. Not that I'm saying that's right, its a terrible choice to make, but if you decline the assignment, it'll probably not look good for you.

It is hard to believe that this policy was not known. I would think that with spring weather, this situation had to come up before and the pain caused wouldn't be easily forgotten. If it is a new policy, shame on your association not to educate its members about it. This would be a hard one for me to let go of.

And I don't think the teams would want  a volunteer working their game. . 

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They get bitter about paying for shortened games, but don't seem to care when we have to work a 3+ hour extra inning game.

By shorting us on suspended games, it creates an imbalance with those extra inning games. Neither happen too frequently, so they offset each other.

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2 hours ago, ricka56 said:

Because if you don't bend over and take it, you'll look petty and could become an embarrassment to your association. Not that I'm saying that's right, its a terrible choice to make, but if you decline the assignment, it'll probably not look good for you.

It is hard to believe that this policy was not known. I would think that with spring weather, this situation had to come up before and the pain caused wouldn't be easily forgotten. If it is a new policy, shame on your association not to educate its members about it. This would be a hard one for me to let go of.

And I don't think the teams would want  a volunteer working their game. . 

You presuppose that we have associations here that do assigning -- and you also presuppose there's a consistent policy across the board from game to game and league to league.  You'd be incorrect, too.

Conference varsity games are assigned by leagues here.  I assign one such league for all varsity sports (2 divisions, 16 baseball teams out of 24 schools).  We have a clear policy -- if these were regular season games in my league, we would pay a full game check for both games, regardless of who worked the completion.

This, on the other hand, is a state playoff game assigned by the state office.  They set the policies and, frankly, I've *never* had a post-season game suspended or postponed after driving to the location so I had no idea what they'd do.  Nor did the school, by the way, as they asked me what they owe me for coming back.

While the state makes initial assignments for regionals, once a game is moved / postponed / canceled, the home team is responsible for hiring the replacements.  I know, I know.  So if I said, "can't do it" there would be no repercussions whatsoever.  The home school would find another umpire, and by policy, pay that person a FULL GAME CHECK plus mileage.

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4 hours ago, udbrky said:

That could easily have turned into a 17-14 game in that inning. Run rule isn't a thing until it's met imo.

With the teams involved, that wasn't going to happen.  But, yeah.

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