Umpires End Strike

I saw that the lawsuit between the minor league umpires and Minor Leage Baseball was settled late last night. That probably opened the door to a settlement.

MILB.com has the story here.

Financial terms of the deal were as of yet unknown, but a source close to the AMLU believed there would be a bump in salary as well as the per diem for all Minor League umpires, two of the key issues that led to the strike. The union will vote on the deal on Sunday, and the source was confident it would pass.

The regular umpires should be back on the field by May 8th.

This part of a Dragons Notebook "Replacement umps not making the right calls" in the Dayton Daily News was filed before the agreement was reached. It focuses on two bad calls by the base umpire in last night's game between Dayton and Peoria.

Can I let you in on a little something? The regular umpires will make some bad calls this season, too. Managers will get tossed because of them. Writers will write about those calls. Broadcasters will talk (or, rave depending) about those calls.

Cycle of life, folks. Cycle of life.

I can almost guarantee that during an argument this season between a manager and one of the regular umpires, that manager is going say at some point, "You know what? Those replacement umps did a hell of a lot better job than you did!!" There may be a bit more profanity involved and it may not be fair, but it will be interesting to see how the first few games with the regular umpires play out.