Umpires feeling the squeeze during virus shutdown
Mike Provine was preparing to work a three-game series between St. Joseph’s University and Long Island University in Philadelphia when the phone rang.
The NCAA had canceled all of its spring sports because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has now brought the entire sports world to a screeching halt.
While the athletes, coaches and fans quickly raced to the front of the mind, another group was going to feel the impact of life without sports.
The officials.
“The unfortunate thing for us is so many guys rely on that income,” said Provine, who is one of thousands of collegiate umpires or officials to all of a sudden be out of a paycheck. “You can rely on at least three-quarters of it because you have to account for rainouts and various reasons games get canceled throughout the season, but for the most part, it’s pretty good. There are a lot of guys who are struggling to figure out what they’re going to do.”
Provine, 31, began umpiring as a teenager in the West Windsor Little League and realized he enjoyed being an arbiter of the rules more than a player. A West Windsor-Plainsboro North graduate, he later went to the MiLB Umpire Academy and worked in the minors from 2012-17, including a stint in the Eastern League.
In the last few years, he’s transitioned to the collegiate level and was looking forward to his first season in the Atlan
tic 10 after being primarily stationed in the Patriot League.
“It’s so weird because the weekend before I was at Navy and we were playing games and it was like nothing was wrong,” Provine said. “A week later, the whole season was shut down.”
On the Facebook group Officially Connected, which serves as a community for umpires to interact, some estimated losing between $40-50,000 this season.
The amount of pay per game differs depending on the league. For example, Power Five conferences have a higher fee than mid-major leagues. For those based in the Northeast, there isn’t as much work until schools return from southern road trips in early March.
Provine projects his lost income could total around $15,000. He said most guys at the collegiate level have another a job, but the money from umpiring can go towards honeymoons, vacations or college funds for children.
“It’s devastating to have that kind of income potential just vanish in a span of 48 hours,” Provine said.
In New Jersey, the high school baseball season is not going to start on Wednesday as originally scheduled, but when, or if, it even begins nobody knows.
The not knowing is the hardest part.
“We’re in a holding pattern just like everybody else,” said Greg Zak Jr., who serves as the Baseball Interpreter and Cadet Instructor for the Delaware Valley Umpires Association. “It’s a week-by-week basis.”
Zak is one of the most recognizable umpires on the high school baseball scene, probably because he’s a mountain of a man,
although when you get to know him you realize how easy it is to talk baseball with him. Especially the rules. “I could recite the rulebook to you and you would be just like, ‘OK, that’s it because it’s Greg’s job to know it,’” Zak said. “It’s so much better when people ask questions. You learn more when we can have a discussion about it and see why something is interpreted a certain way.”
Zak, too, is feeling the squeeze. He works high school games in New Jersey, travel games at Diamond Nation in Flemington and NCAA Division II and III games. All that in addition to his fulltime job as a sales rep at All Sports Officials LLC, a small business based out of Newtown, Pa., which provides officiating gear for all sport seasons.
Zak estimates he’s already lost close to $3,000 in revenue after the NCAA canceled all spring sports and Diamond Nation stopped hosting travel games. That total, he said, could end up being between $8-10,000 by the end of the summer.
High schools in New Jersey pay $83 for all varsity contests and $60 for the sub-varsity level, Zak said. Even for somebody who doesn’t work multiple gigs, four high school games a week for a six-week season comes out to $1,992.
“The collegiate level was a bludgeoning,” Zak said. “We just kept getting phone calls that seasons were getting canceled. There’s a lot of money being lost and significant income.”
Zak said he’s also filed for unemployment from his job at Sports Officials LLC because it’s been days since an order has come in. He was on his way to a chapter meeting in Atlantic County to pitch gear to this year’s crop of umpires when a call came in to turn around because everything had been canceled.
The $2 trillion stimulus package passed by the government will offer some relief. College umpires, as independent contractors, can file for unemployment. MiLB and MLB umpires have unions, Provine said, and the minor league umpires are able to file for unemployment during the shutdown, something they wouldn’t be able to do in normal times.
Zak remains as upbeat as possible. He chats online with a group of his umpiring buddies about rule changes and baseball in general. He knows sports will be back, and when they are, they will need officials.
That was his most important plea.
“We know we need officials because every sport is hurting for them. It’s the biggest problem we have,” Zak said. “If you’re interested, reach out, and I’ll help get you connected to the right people.”
In the meantime, an obnoxious parent or angry coach would be blessing.
“I would kill for that right now,” Provine said. “Guys are just chomping at the bit. They wish they were out on a field somewhere. It’s so weird to be home on weekends in March, April and May and not be on a baseball field somewhere.”