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Jennie Brown's avatar

As a former Little League president and the wife of an umpire, I can say that the one of the most important jobs was to firmly defend the umpires from both coaches and parents. We always had more games than umpires and if a coach or team parents misbehaved, that team was moved to the bottom of the list. I know of a few leagues that require coaches to umpire twice during the season as a condition of their appointment.

Little League umpires provide their own uniforms, pay for their own training, and pay their own travel expenses when they work district, state and regional tournaments. They don’t sit on a bucket during half the game. They often work 5 nights a week after working their day jobs, as well as giving up their Saturdays. During the last 3 1/2 months, my husband worked 60 games.

I don’t think the solution is to pay umpires. I think the solution is for local leagues to enforce some behavior standards and show people to the parking lot when they misbehave. People tend to not be repeat offenders

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