Major League Umpire Salary

So You Want to Be an Umpire?

Brett Houseman and Ramon De Jesus are two names you might not read in the sports copy out of the Florida State League, but just like most every ballplayer on the field, they are hoping their performance will lead to a call-up.  

Florida State League umpires Brett Houseman of Dayton, OH and Ramon De Jesus of the Dominican Republic, both 27, said a promotion from level to level depends on the grading they receive from supervisors who attend three games a season, watching each of their performances behind the plate and on the bases. 

Houseman and De Jesus explained the road to becoming a Major League umpire recently while they were pre-gaming boxes and boxes of new baseballs at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, rubbing them down with a brown substance — mud from a company called Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud . (All balls in the Minor and Major Leagues receive this muddy rubdown before the games. It helps with the players’ grip.)

Houseman is the godson of former Major League umpire John McSherry , who died suddenly on the field during the Cincinnati Reds' opening day in 1996. Houseman travels with his godfather's photo and places it by his locker before every game. 

De Jesus is the first umpire from the Dominican Republic in Minor or Major League Baseball in North America. He started umpiring in his native country before attending the Jim Evans Academy of Professional Umpiring three years ago. 

Houseman enrolled in the Wendelstedt Umpiring School . 

Both Houseman’s and De Jesus’ six-week programs had similar enrollments of 100 or so hopefuls. The top 25 from each school go on to the next stage, the Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation , where they are graded while umpiring high school and college games.

As Minor League umpires, their salary is capped at $3,500 a month. As rookie umpires, De Jesus and Houseman were paid $1,900 a month, which increased by $100 with every year of experience. 

The exciting announcement on whether they have been selected to join the organization comes during a one-on-one evaluation. After receiving the good news, they are optioned to one of two leagues — the  Arizona Rookie League or the Gulf Coast League . 

The young umpires have already developed their signature behind-the-plate call for third strikes.

“Strike three, yer out!” Hardly.

MLB Umpires: When Job Security is a Foul | AustinPost.org

Imagine you came to work today and your boss told you that you couldn't be fired, no matter how bad you screwed up.  Sent out a check for $10,000 instead of $100?  No problem.  Slept with a high school student after algebra class?  Fine.  Had a customer on the phone and called him a raging douchecopter? Hey, how about a raise?  

You wouldn't be very motivated, would you?  You'd probably spend your time seeing which sites are blocked on the internet, taking extra long breaks, maybe a nap, flirting with the hottie in the other department.  What do you care, you literally CANNOT be fired.  

That's the enviable position that Major League Baseball umpires find themselves in.  And their performance, or lack thereof, shows it.  

This should be a banner time for the MLB.  It's had the entire summer to itself, more so than at any other time in history.  The NFL was in the midst of a bitter lockout with both sides, the billionaires versus the millionaires, being blamed.  The NBA seems dead set on destroying the entire upcoming season with the league's stars flocking to Europe and Asia for tax-free paydays.  There's only seventeen hockey fans in the United States and there was no American doing anything at the major tennis tournaments, golf tournaments, Tour de France.  Arguably baseball's biggest competition for viewers this whole summer was the Women's World Cup and Team USA's choke job in the final against Japan.  

Meanwhile, this has been a great year for baseball.  Perennially moribund teams like Cleveland and Pittsburgh, picked to finish somewhere below "dead last" in the preseason are fighting for playoff spots.  Big market teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers and Phillies are all playing well.  Five of the six division races are four games or closer.  There is the huge frenzy of the July 31st trading deadline looming and a halfway decent All Star game earlier this month, not that anyone was watching .

And yet, what are we talking about?  Umpires blowing calls.  Umpires getting into arguments with players and managers at such a rate that some of the game's best and most respected managers are coming out and talking about it.  

Last year, an umpire cost Detroit Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game with a call that everyone in the stadium knew was wrong.  Their have only been 20 perfect games in the history of major league baseball.  ESPN did an investigative piece and found that on 184 "close" calls, over 20% were incorrect.  ONE IN FIVE CALLS WERE WRONG!  What if one in five condoms didn't work?  Or one in five bullets misfired?  It is an absurdly high margin of error.  What was baseball's response?

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