Umpires/Taso/UIL

[no_tomorrow]

What's the gist of all this mess I've reading on SDC about the TASO/UIL mess for umpires?

From what I can gather, schools may have to rely on non-TASO officials

[Joe Black]

Lots of talk on another site. Seems like the UIL is holding firm to their pay scale for the year. Mileage seems to be the issue. Tyler chapter seems to be the most outspoken and calling for a state wide boycott of UIL schools.

[no_tomorrow]

The UIL should hold firm to its pay scale. If TASO agreed to it, then shame on them.

I can't understand why they (TASO complainants) think $45 a game is unfair for high school baseball. When I was calling 3 years ago, most of us in our chapter got at least 2 games a week unless we happened to work a doubleheader on the weekend and we'd get 3. But even at 2 games, that's $90 a week. Most games last 1.5-2 hours. So you're putting in 3-4 hours of game time a week. Add in a weekly meeting for an hour and you've put in 5 hours and still making $18 an hour. That's not even calculating your mileage.
Not sure what it is now but it was somewhere around 40 cents a mile a few years ago. Driving 60mph results in another $24 an hour. Granted some of that must be used to buy gas. And unless you have a big ole pickemup truck you're making money on the mileage.
The only beef I had in the 2 years that I called UIL games was that the first year, I probably didn't make a dime after considering the cost of my equipment.
It's going to continue to go round and round with no resolution. 
I think high school umpires are right along the same pay scale as a Single A minor league umpire, so really do they have an argument?