Road to the LLWS 2023 edition

[Vertigo]

Compensation For Services Provided to Local League

The Little League® organization is a Federal Incorporation granted under a Bill signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1964, and amended December 24, 1974, to reflect the admission of girls – it is the only youth sports program so honored. Incorporated as a not-for-profit...

www.littleleague.org

Don’t Let This Happen: Paying Umpires Results in Worker's Comp Lawsuit

Recruiting umpires can often be a challenge for local leagues, but paying for game officials typically does not buy a better quality of officiating. If the pool of umpires is not strong, it is the league or district’s responsibility to recruit, train, and retain umpires.

www.littleleague.org

 

[LEsoftballdad]

My daughter was paid $30 per game to umpire A Ball and Minors softball. They were all HS girls or boys doing the games. Majors games were all professional umpires that did HS and travel games.

 

[Traps71]

Compensation For Services Provided to Local League

The Little League® organization is a Federal Incorporation granted under a Bill signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1964, and amended December 24, 1974, to reflect the admission of girls – it is the only youth sports program so honored. Incorporated as a not-for-profit...

www.littleleague.org

Don’t Let This Happen: Paying Umpires Results in Worker's Comp Lawsuit

Recruiting umpires can often be a challenge for local leagues, but paying for game officials typically does not buy a better quality of officiating. If the pool of umpires is not strong, it is the league or district’s responsibility to recruit, train, and retain umpires.

www.littleleague.org

Umpires in our LL are paid as well. Think the going rate is $60 for plate ump and $30 for the field. My son, HS Sophomore, calls games for AA and AAA baseball and has been asked to do Majors, which he has mostly avoided because the amount of crazy in LL baseball seems to increase exponentially by level. He had to get "certified" by attending several training classes run by more experienced umpires.

I'll have to confirm this, but I think that the umpire services at our LL may be "sub contracted" out because I see several of these umpires also doing high school games or USA Softball events. We would also be asked to supply volunteer pitchers, batters, and catchers to help with the USA Softball umpire certification class each winter.

 

[Vertigo]

Yeah, ours were all volunteer in the SB and BB side. How it worked in SB was that coaches whose teams were not playing on a given evening would umpire a game in the same division that day. So Minors and Rookies would have essentially Coach/parent umpires. All coaches and interested parents had to go to an umpire clinic run by the District UIC. Majors division had volunteer official umpires. I’ve only ever seen them at the LL games within the District.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Compensation For Services Provided to Local League

The Little League® organization is a Federal Incorporation granted under a Bill signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 17, 1964, and amended December 24, 1974, to reflect the admission of girls – it is the only youth sports program so honored. Incorporated as a not-for-profit...

www.littleleague.org

Don’t Let This Happen: Paying Umpires Results in Worker's Comp Lawsuit

Recruiting umpires can often be a challenge for local leagues, but paying for game officials typically does not buy a better quality of officiating. If the pool of umpires is not strong, it is the league or district’s responsibility to recruit, train, and retain umpires.

www.littleleague.org

I'm going to step on some toes, and just when I was trying to be kinder to LL ...

Little League should be ashamed of themselves for publishing those articles and the bad/outdated information in them. I call BS on the worker's comp article for several reasons. That's the same vague kind of fear-mongering the old USA Softball UIC used to use when telling us not to shake hands with players because ... hang on ... imagine this story in this voice:

OK ... back to the point ...

"One time, at a tournament, this guy was umpiring, and he stayed on the field to shake hands with the players, and ... a player ... she tripped when trying to shake his hand, and he tried to catch her, but he touched her boob, and he got sued, and he lost his house and everything. I can't share details because it was all legal action ... but don't shake hands or fist bump!"

Every organization I have worked for has been very explicit in stating, "You are an independent contractor." I don't take any exception with that ... until they start trying to make you act like an employee. Again, old USA UIC wanted you to only work for him if you wanted to work for him, and would blackball guys and gals who jumped around the alphabet. (I thought you were very clear that I was an independent contractor ... which means I can work for who I please and when I please.)

Some local Little Leagues have gone to paying their umpires out of necessity. Personally, I find it slightly offensive that LL National HQ thrives the way it does, but then commands locals to donate their time while paying money up the chain to them.

My daughter was paid $30 per game to umpire A Ball and Minors softball. They were all HS girls or boys doing the games. Majors games were all professional umpires that did HS and travel games.

I will commend the way many of the commentators have been talking about the umpires during the many LLWS games, referring to them as "professional" or "paid" umpires for other organizations who donate their time back to Little League. Thank you for recognizing that!

Professional doesn't mean we make a living at it, just that we treat it as such and do get paid.

 

[BucketDud]

Some local Little Leagues have gone to paying their umpires out of necessity. Personally, I find it slightly offensive that LL National HQ thrives the way it does, but then commands locals to donate their time while paying money up the chain to them.

I agree 100% with this. Always been leery of organizational leaders who make money off the backs of volunteer workers.

Think they bring in over $30 million annually with $7-$8 million of that coming from just the ESPN contract.

And yet want umpires to work for free. So the local organizations are left to fill that void.

 

[#teamsmith]

Maybe not to this extreme, but showing only the very best sets unrealistic and unfair expectations. You know who can play at the level of some of these Little League teams? A LOT of girls. And many of the ones not at that level could probably see themselves getting there one day. That is a good thing for softball.

Same reason why only showing Oklahoma on TV is not great for the sport. A lot of kids who have actual college level talent, but not Oklahoma-level talent, think they're not good enough because they're not good enough for the top 1%.

That is a great point. My DDs JUST made their first competitive team and were feeling pretty nervous. But when we watched LL they realized that (at least) was something they could do. That the girls on TV aren't the same as the 18U Alliance/PGF players we watched this summer. Even the girls on TV make mistakes, which helped inspire my two clowns--I mean DDs.