Fort Worth MSBL Umpires

Paid, and given real authority

The rulebook carries its own heading on payments to umpires, and the arrangement shows up throughout: if both managers agree to suspend a game, the umpires return the unpaid portion of their money to the clubs. The home plate umpire keeps the official time, calls out the start at the first pitch for both teams to write down, decides whether to delay or call a game once it has begun, rules on cracked helmets, and may allow used baseballs when a club runs out. Every ejection produces a written report to league officials.

Refunding part of a fee when a game dies early is an unusually fair arrangement and it means the money is tracked game by game. No assignor or crew is named; on High Cheese the crew attaches to the fixture, so an umpire sees his week — and what he is owed for it — where the clubs see theirs.