In an earlier post I made quick mention of being a baseball umpire. Initially one might think that this could be a dream job for a baseball fan, but the old adage, “be careful what you wish for” could certainly apply here. First, the financials: I did some digging and found out that an umpire starts out at about $1800 per month ($21,600 per year) and can reach $3500 per month ($42K per year) while in the Minor Leagues. Major League umpires start at about $100,000 annually and max out at about $450,000. It usually takes between 5 and 8 years to make it into the Major Leagues.

Clearly the majors is the place to be if you’re looking at this strictly from a financial perspective. But don’t forget, when you’re an umpire, pretty much everyone hates you. You don’t have a “home field,” which means you’re on the road every game, every season. Additionally, you’d also have to spend a majority of time with the same three people for a long time. If you don’t get along with even one of them, yikes.

To even get an assignment as an umpire, you have to attend one of several umpiring schools, most of which are located in Florida. The schools cost, in general, about $3,000 to attend and are about one month in duration, after which you are tested. If you don’t measure up, you go home, no refund. If you do measure up, you apparantly go into some kind of assignment camp of some sorts, which is another evaluation to determine where they will place you – it might be the west coast, it might be New England, it might be Mexico for all I know.

Interesting stuff……I’m sure it won’t be long before the WB is down at these camps with their cameras, filming the new reality show “Who wants to be an umpire?”

Song now playing: REM – “King of Birds”