I live in Baseball USA. Seriously. Rochester, New York received that designation a few years back. I don't know if it's an annual thing, but I know we got it a few years ago, mainly for our minor league team - the Red Wings. Now, this isn't an indictment of the Red Wings, but I am using them to illustrate this situation.

I can't go to Red Wing games. No, it's because of any kind of incident (and I was never convicted). It's because the minor league umpires are on strike and all minor league games are using scab umpires. I realize it's not "reasonable" to expect the Rochester Red Wings to refuse to play in games that uses scab umpires - but if they did, it sure would make for great conversation.

I actually e-mailed the team to see how they would respond. I immediately got an e-mail that my inquiry was forwarded to the General Manager. No reply yet. I'm shocked.

A couple things that kills about this is that the life of a minor league ump is not all that great. You have to travel to places like...um...well, Rochester for one. How about Duluth, Akron, Midland, Kannapolis, Billings...did I mention Rochester? You get yelled at alot, it's not a year round job so you have to find temp work in the winter. And it's not all that safe a job.

Baseball is making record money, with higher attendence every year. They can afford to throw these guys some cash. It's not cool.

Minor League Baseball is threatening to fire them, like Reagan did to the Air Traffic Controllers in the 80's. And yet I don't see labor stepping up to help them. And then they wonder why unions don't have the power they once did. Like the Democrats, they've sold out to corporations and think about the short-term.

So I'm not going to a Red Wing game until the umps are back. I'm sure no one cares, but at least I know I'm doing what's right. So there.