Scheduling

[umpire_scott]

So this is part looking for advice and part simply venting.  I basically do my work for two different organizations here in STL.  One is an umpiring organization and the other is a tournament director.  My preference is to always work for the umpiring organization.  They put on clinics, they have much higher quality of play, and they have much better umpires.

 

At our summer meeting and through e-mails the board and scheduler for the umpiring organization has been imploring umpires to open their schedules on arbiter and make them a priority.  He even stated if you work for others I understand as you are independent contractors, but that our organization should be the first priority.  

 

The tournament director has tournaments every single weekend.  He also schedules umpires to work a ton of games.  This past weekend I worked 2 games Friday night, 4 games Saturday, and 7 games Sunday.  They are 1:40 no new inning with games scheduled every 2 hours.  The pay is low at $37.50 per game, but he's a good guy and takes care of his umpires.  Some examples are I get a check for all my games at the end of my last game.  No waiting for a check in the mail.  He also gives the umpires all the hats we needs, jackets, and even shirts.  The level of play varies as it's all travel ball tournaments.  There is literally no training or expectations of umpires and so I get paired with some pretty bad and/or lazy umpires.

 

My problem in scheduling is that I need to tell the tournament director about my availability on Mon/Tue for the upcoming weekend tournament.  He then sends my schedule to me via text on Wednesday evening.  If my organization has a tournament coming up that weekend I never know if I have games by Monday or Tuesday.  So I'm somewhat reluctant to tell the tournament director that I'm not available.  So once I get my games on Wednesday I go in and block arbiter and then I show unavailable for my organization.

 

So I e-mailed the organizations scheduler this past weekend and said that I knew we had a Pastime Tournament coming up.  I said I don't need to know my schedule, but if I can count on getting a few games each day then I will tell the other tournament director I'm not available.  He responded by saying "We have Pastime this weekend and I will use you.  Hope you are available".  So I told the tournament director I was not available for this weekend.  And what do I get from my organization?  In a four day tournament (THU-SUN) I have one game on Saturday and that's it.

 

Now for some that may not seem like a big deal, but I'm depending on umpiring as a somewhat steady source of income.  I don't need to make $500 every weekend, but I only teach part time right now as I have not been able to land a full-time teaching position since we moved here.  So I was counting on getting at least 4-6 games this weekend not 1.  And I know it's not anything to do with him not wanting to schedule me as I have legion games all during the week.

 

Any suggestions on how to handle this?  I communicated my position to the scheduler.  I told him that the organization was my first priority but also needed the money.  He either doesn't listen or doesn't care, or simply didn't get enough games to give me more.  It just pisses me off that he acts like he's dying for umpires and then I block my weekend out for him and get one game.

[Umpire in Chief]

I fight that same battle with one of the associations I work with to a certain degree. 

 

They want their association to be my #1 priority and even turn back games from other associations at their request (which I do not do). 

 

But you need to make your own decision on where to place your priorities. It sounds like right now in your life the money is a pretty big factor (that's not a knock, it is for many of us). So you may want to make your priority the tournament guy, at least for now. 

 

This means you might have to take your lumps with your association meaning you might get assigned less or less desirable games until they feel they are your priority. 

 

Earlier this year I gave my NCAA assigner priority, and my HS assigner only gave me 1 varsity game, 1 JV game (it's been years since I've worked a JV game) and 4 Rec games. Now I will say I have quite a few other personal things in my life right now which have got in the way of my availability too and it wasn't all to "punish" me for my outside loyalty, but that is a factor to some extent.

 

But once you make a commitment to one group's games you own those games even if a better paying opportunity comes up.

 

Balancing 2 or more groups can be tricky.

[JaxRolo]

I have 5 groups I work with. It's a full time job juggling all of this!

[Stan W.]

 I'm depending on umpiring as a somewhat steady source of income. 

 

The answer you need is pretty clear to me.......remember advice is what you ask for when you already know what you should do.........

 

"Depending and steady" are your key words....

[Majordave]

@JaxRolo

 

Only 5?  Damn!  

 

Try 16 different assigners/assigning organizations and two of them assign three or more different levels/leagues.  We are baseball rich here in the greater KC area.  We just have to like to freeze or sweat a lot.  106 games to date since 1/30/14.

[Jocko]

@Majordave - ,,!,,

[JaxRolo]

@JaxRolo

 

Only 5?  Damn!  

 

Try 16 different assigners/assigning organizations and two of them assign three or more different levels/leagues.  We are baseball rich here in the greater KC area.  We just have to like to freeze or sweat a lot.  106 games to date since 1/30/14.

5 are my main ones. Then I always other people, coaches, friends, etc trying to throw games at me.  I keep telling them no I will no longer work t-ball! I got promoted to pitching machine last year!!!

[Jocko]

I work for 3 assignors. And that's enough.

[Majordave]

@Jocko

 

WTF? is that?  I don't read emoticon very well.  Are you saying you want to have sex with me?  or calling BS?

 

@JaxRolo

 

Hahaha!  You self-depricate too much.  I know you are good if you work PG baseball.  I don't think they work slugs more than once.

[Jocko]

@Majordave - it's my way of saying I'm jealous of your baseball richness. I'm pretty much down to weekend tourneys now. And even those will stop in a few weeks for a month or two.

[Majordave]

Tried to post my Arbiter Organizations drop down.  I had to delete.  The weblinks to my schedule apparently copied into the post.

 

@Jocko

 

Move up here man, plenty of room.  MidAm Ump is asking for umpires every weekend and we cannot support him with all the baseball tourneys here.  We are all working double digit number of games every weekend.

[MidAmUmp]

Here's my take...

First, St. Louis is a mess.  Everyone is in a pissing match.  I book showcase tournaments all over the Midwest.  Associations are glad to share their guys...except in St. Louis.  I had a huge tournament up there last weekend - 90+ games, 10 fields.  I had a handful of guys who wanted to come up from my area.  I booked them and contacted the association we normally use to book the tournaments to give them the rest of the games.  Monday - no response from the assigner.  Tuesday - no response from the assigner.  Wednesday I start booking other guys on my own and contact another association to help.  I still had openings on Sunday so out of desperation I sent out about 50 e-mails to HS registered guys in the STL area.  The association we normally use blows up, e-mails all of their members and tells them they aren't allowed to work for me.  (That may also explain the e-mail you got...)  Long story short, I finally contact their president, explain the whole situation, they actually understand and see what I was doing and agree to book the rest of them.  All of this because they got bent out of shape because I was going to bring 6 guys from my area to fill 2 fields for the weekend and "steal their games".  That's what you're dealing with up there.

 

Having said that, you are probably going to upset someone regardless of what you decide to do.  I would suggest contacting the assigner for your association and explaining the situation to him 1 on 1.  Let him know your work situation, etc.  You would hope he would use some common sense.  1 game vs. a boat load for a weekend isn't much of a question, but you obviously understand the big picture.  As an assigner I would allow one of my guys to work elsewhere if I could only give him 1 game on a weekend and someone else could load him up.  I want my guys working every chance they can get.

[JaxRolo]

@Jocko<br /><br /><br /><br />@JaxRolo<br /><br />Hahaha! You self-depricate too much. I know you are good if you work PG baseball. I don't think they work slugs more than once.

<br />Funny you say that. I have seen new guys come into PG and work a couple of games then you never see them again. They've been quietly dismissed.

[umpire_scott]

Here's my take...

First, St. Louis is a mess.  Everyone is in a pissing match.  I book showcase tournaments all over the Midwest.  Associations are glad to share their guys...except in St. Louis.  I had a huge tournament up there last weekend - 90+ games, 10 fields.  I had a handful of guys who wanted to come up from my area.  I booked them and contacted the association we normally use to book the tournaments to give them the rest of the games.  Monday - no response from the assigner.  Tuesday - no response from the assigner.  Wednesday I start booking other guys on my own and contact another association to help.  I still had openings on Sunday so out of desperation I sent out about 50 e-mails to HS registered guys in the STL area.  The association we normally use blows up, e-mails all of their members and tells them they aren't allowed to work for me.  (That may also explain the e-mail you got...)  Long story short, I finally contact their president, explain the whole situation, they actually understand and see what I was doing and agree to book the rest of them.  All of this because they got bent out of shape because I was going to bring 6 guys from my area to fill 2 fields for the weekend and "steal their games".  That's what you're dealing with up there.

 

Having said that, you are probably going to upset someone regardless of what you decide to do.  I would suggest contacting the assigner for your association and explaining the situation to him 1 on 1.  Let him know your work situation, etc.  You would hope he would use some common sense.  1 game vs. a boat load for a weekend isn't much of a question, but you obviously understand the big picture.  As an assigner I would allow one of my guys to work elsewhere if I could only give him 1 game on a weekend and someone else could load him up.  I want my guys working every chance they can get.

 

I did actually get the e-mail (I assume from the second organization you contacted as that is who I work for) saying you needed help.  At the time I did not know that it was you.  I was already working all weekend for the tournament organizer.  Yes it is a pissing match here.  We are told that we absolutely cannot be member of the competing organization (which I assume is the one you normally work with as they have the majority of the HS contracts in the STL area).

 

I did contact my assignor directly and fully explained my situation.  He is not as straight forward in his communications as I am.  

[grayhawk]

In my experience, when I lived in St. Louis, it was a very "clicky" town.  Just the mentality there at the time.  Sounds like it hasn't changed much.

[Majordave]

@JaxRolo

 

Re: PG work.  Exactly!  I have not worked for them, yet, but I have followed their organization for years since I coached and they are a money machine and a juggernaut but they do it right.  Not perfectly, but right.  You won't coach or umpire or be associated with them very long if you aren't fundamentally sound and properly motivated. 

 

I emailed them and got an invite but I still don't have my work situation settled yet.  I have a firm offer to stay here but have not started yet and probably won't get enough vacation this summer to allow me to go to FL or ATL and work for them.   Maybe in AZ this fall.

 

Good luck.  You owe us a rundown of your UmpNation/PG experiences so far.

 

@umpire_scott

 

Jason gives great advice as I am sure you probably know.  I am glad I don't live and work near you.  I like the way all the assigner, or most of them, work together to try and cover all the games and move guys up that deserve it.  Too bad everyone can't be that way.  A city as big as St. Louis should be able to accommodate two major organizations and let everyone work as much as they want to work.

 

By the way, I love to visit St. L.  Lots to do, great places to eat and drink, some damn fine hotels and sites to see.

[TStokes97]

This is why I am glad I have only 2 assignors, 1 gives me alot of games that pay well($42 or $56) the other is a rec ball commissioner who asks me to help out now and again, I do the rec games for fun they take good care of umps and the games are alot of fun and coaches care about teaching and having fun other wise I would stick to 1 assigner but the rec games are too fun to pass up