Behind In The Count

Rich Gonzalez has everything he needs to fulfill his dream of becoming a major league umpire.

He has the skills, the character, the intelligence, the passion.

"It's what I want to do with my life," he says.

What he may never get, however, is the opportunity.

That's because the big league umpire roster has only slightly more turnover than the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, between 2004 and last season the Supreme Court actually got more new justices (two) than baseball did new umpires (one).

And that has made it difficult for baseball to make progress in its effort to broaden an umpire corps that is more than 91% white.

"We're keenly aware of the need for diversity," says Rich Rieker, a former umpire and now an umpire supervisor for Major League Baseball. "And we're keenly aware of what we need to do."

But getting it done will be a challenge. The road to the majors for an umpire is longer and more arduous than the ones facing officials in other major professional sports, rutted by low pay, a grueling work schedule and backbreaking travel.

And there's no guarantee that road will end in the big leagues because the overwhelming majority of minor league umpires quit or are released long before their 10- to 12-year apprenticeships are over.

"It's not attractive at all," Cris Jones says.

Jones should know. He became an umpire right out of college, graduating from umpire school at the top of his class and becoming, according to longtime major league umpire and instructor Harry Wendelstedt, one of the most promising young umpires he has ever seen.

Eleven years later, his path to the majors blocked by the low turnover, Jones couldn't even qualify for a car loan. So he eventually joined Rieker as an umpire supervisor and now finds himself trying to recruit people to follow the same path that eventually wore him down.

"It's such a challenge," he says. "To try to tell these kids, 'Hey, you may not make it. But give me five to 10 years of your prime to find out.' That's tough to do that."

Especially given the working conditions. Although minor league baseball has never been more profitable, shattering attendance records in each of the last four seasons, salaries for umpires in 14 of baseball's 16 U.S.-based minor leagues last season ranged from $450 to $600 a week, according to the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., which oversees minor league umpiring.