2024 NFHS printed publication pricing

[SeeingEyeDog]

Rule book $12

Case book $12

Umpire's manual $12

Shipping $13

TOTAL: $49

So, half a game fee to help me umpire games that few are interested in working...got it. Working pre-season scrimmages for free...yup, got that too apparently.
~Dawg

[JonnyCat]

This is one of the many reasons I stopped doing pay to work games for the SH*#ty pay they want to give us.

As an independent contractor, (which we are), I've told both my HS association and my adult baseball league what my league fees and conditions are to work games. If they don't want to meet my conditions, they don't get me to work them. Plain and simple. I'm the independent contractor (businessman), and I set the rate of pay that I will work for. If they don't, my fat ass will find plenty of other things to do. Why as an independent contractor are you allowing the rate of pay to be set for you?

If they want to set the rate of pay and kickbacks, then they can hire me as an actual employee, deduct my taxes and pay the taxes that employees doesn't, provide me with the proper PPE and training classes and materials, and provide workman's comp. Also, they must have a set of standards that the employer, (read: schools and coaches) must follow, along with guidelines for the employee.

We complain about the rate of pay and working conditions, but what are you doing about it? Let me guess, you bought all that SH*#, didn't you? If you did, why are you complaining?

[Jimurray]

1 hour ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Rule book $12

Case book $12

Umpire's manual $12

Shipping $13

TOTAL: $49

So, half a game fee to help me umpire games that few are interested in working...got it. Working pre-season scrimmages for free...yup, got that too apparently.
~Dawg

Deduct $12 for not needed umpire manual. We get manuals for free from our association and also casebooks for new umps. But the electronic versions from NFHS All Access are about $7 each. Figuring out how to sign up for all access app and getting the pubs is a chore. But that’s the more irritating fly in my ointment. MLB and NCAA allow free downloads of their rules. 

[SeeingEyeDog]

Thanks, @Jimurray...I spend 12 hours a day in front of monitors. I'll keep buying the printed manuals until they no longer offer them. In which case, I'll download the .pdf and print that. I have no issue if a governing body wants to sell their rulebooks. But, your umpires, officials, coaches and players should have access to printed rulebooks at no charge. On its own, it's a small thing...but, when you consider the inherent indignities associated with youth baseball that we all suffer as umpires and then charge us for rulebooks? It's an infamnia...

~Dawg  

[wolfe_man]

13 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

Rule book $12

Case book $12

Umpire's manual $12

Shipping $13

TOTAL: $49

So, half a game fee to help me umpire games that few are interested in working...got it. Working pre-season scrimmages for free...yup, got that too apparently.
~Dawg

In OH, we get paid for scrimmages (or I won't work them) and we get the case book and rule book free each year too.  They used to have free or half-fee scrimmages, but few would work them, so they started paying full game fees.  There's no way I'm doing games for free, sorry.  I can get injured or break gear on any play, so there's no way I'm risking it for nothing.

[SeeingEyeDog]

On 1/30/2024 at 12:19 PM, wolfe_man said:

In OH, we get paid for scrimmages (or I won't work them) and we get the case book and rule book free each year too.  They used to have free or half-fee scrimmages, but few would work them, so they started paying full game fees.  There's no way I'm doing games for free, sorry.  I can get injured or break gear on any play, so there's no way I'm risking it for nothing.

It's a cruel irony here locally...I have local brothers who will proudly say "I don't work for free so, I block myself fully during the days scrimmages are taking place." And I respect that sentiment. I do. I prefer not to work for free either. That's why I don't work LL. If LL starts paying their umpires, I'll add some LL to my schedule.

The reality is, most of us at the high school level are not umpiring from November through February. So, to block for scrimmages and not get any pre-season work and expect that you can take the field on opening day after not umpiring for 3 months and be at your best...again, that is not reality for most of us. And I see it in the guys here who don't work scrimmages that it takes them a few games to get fully back in the saddle. I personally feel, I owe it to The Game and the players to get myself in the best mental and physical condition to give them my very best on the field so, I work scrimmages...

Now, I don't think when 4 or 5 guys are assigned to a HS scrimmage and we are working 2-man mechanics so, you're not working the full game we should get the same fee as we would working a full game but, as Wolfe says and alludes to here...I'm still burning gasoline, prepping uniforms, maintaining gear and most significantly assuming risk to my body and giving up 3-4 hours of my life to work that scrimmage. The sad part is, we've got the schools by the short hairs and refuse to see it or act on it. If we told them on the next contract that we wanted fees for scrimmages, there is no other association in my market so, they would choose either not have umpires at their scrimmages or pay us fees for scrimmages. My market is well-heeled, they would pay us. Life is about what you/we can negotiate. Other sports in my market will pay gas stipends if you are scheduled to work outside of your home county but, not baseball...because that's what they have negotiated.

~Dawg

[The Man in Blue]

Scrimmage games are like safe sex.  It's still sex and those are still games.  I get paid for games, I don't care what you call them.  Now, if I could just get paid for . . . never mind.  Forget I said that.

Back to the OP . . . it's bad enough that we already have endless debates on here about how to interpret a rule because some guy has a print-out of an e-mail referencing a text message sent from somebody who overheard a conversation in a bar, and it says we should call that a ground-rule triple.  But when an organization is going to PAYWALL the rules that they so vehemently want us to be perfect on  . . .

 

Do you want us to come in on Saturday (for a free scrimmage), too?

[Kevin_K]

Occasionally I have worked intra squad games for no fee.

These are cases when a coach has reached out to me directly and, in exchange for services rendered, the coaching staff will take the crew out for dinner and beverages and enjoy the evening together.

There are very few schools that enjoy this privilege. Over the many years the coaching staffs have remained stable at these schools, the programs are well run, and there is a mutual respect that we all have for one another's skills, interests, and approaches to the game.

[SeeingEyeDog]

@The Man in Blue...thanks "Lumbergh"! Hopefully, I am managerial material someday...

@Kevin_K...back when I last played in the 80s, the first meeting of the season always included a presentation from one of the veteran umpires from the local association. He would spend some time going over that season's rule changes and then spend 30 minutes fielding hypothetical "Stump The Ump" type questions and scenarios. The Game had its own set of problems back then but, it helped us see the umpires as human beings. I really like how your schools will take you guys out for dinner after scrimmages. Any time we can break bread with each other, it really helps break down barriers and obstacles both real and perceived.
 

~Dawg