The Butler County American Legion Baseball League will continue its own umpiring association for a third straight season.

But unlike previous seasons, members of the Butler County Sports Officials Association will not be permitted to work Legion games.

"They're not interested in our services," BCSOA president Denny Derringer said about Butler County American Legion Baseball. "Our association is responsible for supplying umpires for close to 1,000 games in other leagues.

"We have to keep our umpires free in case of last-minute cancellations or adjustments."

Umpires from other associations can still work Legion games, provided they have the required Legion patch, which signifies proper certification.

These additional umpires helped the Legion group to cover all of its games, which equates to 210 umpiring assignments for 105 games.

The BCSOA has approximately 40 member umpires. Butler County American Legion Baseball began its own umpires association in March 2002 after deciding not to renew its contract with the group.

BCAL president Dess Schnur said a money issue and "a lack of respect for our program" caused the league to reject the organization's services two years ago.

"They were raising their game fees from $58 to $70 at the time," Schnur said. "We're a volunteer organization and wanted to negotiate a different figure.

"We sent a counterproposal and were given a response of take it or leave it. They didn't want to negotiate, so we decided to form our own umpiring group," he added.

The BCSOA's contract offer in 2002 was a three-year deal with the plate and base umpires being paid $35 each, plus a $40 showup fee in the event a game was rained out or not completed with umpires on site.

Schnur said the BCAL agreed to pay the $70 per game fee, but wanted the three-year contract extended to five years and the showup fee reduced to $20.

The BCSOA provides umpires for Eagle County, Colt, Pony and Palomino league games in Butler County.

"Every one of those leagues accepted our contract, but the Legion league didn't," Derringer said. "They certainly have the right to do what they're doing. We have no problem with it.

"Our association does everything by vote. I didn't decide not to accept their counterproposal. It was voted down," he added.

At a special BCSOA meeting Feb. 27, 2002, 24 of 43 member umpires attended and voted 18-5 - Derringer abstained - to retain the association's current fee schedule.

"Our rates are the lowest in the state," said BCSOA secretary Larry Holt. "No other league wanted to negotiate it down."

The BCAL solicited and trained its own umpires the past two seasons. The league has put approximately 20 umpires on the field the past two years.

During the off-season, BCAL vice president Dan Cunningham met with Derringer in an effort to merge the two umpire organizations.

Schnur said BCAL managers were unaware of the negotiations until the Legion league's March 8 meeting.

"The news hit us like a bombshell," he said. "We never voted on it. None of our managers ever proposed we take a vote on it.

"Our umpiring system has been in place for two years and has worked fine. Nobody saw any reason to change it," he added.

BCAL secretary-treasurer and Mars Legion manager Bob Steiner said he thought a deal was struck this off-season to bring all of the umpires under the same umbrella.

"Honestly, I thought it was a done deal," Steiner said. "But it turned out to be an issue of control. We wanted all of the umpires in both associations to be available for all leagues, but we wanted to schedule umpires for Legion games. They (BCSOA) wanted to do all of the scheduling."

Because umpires are kept busy, Steiner said it was difficult for the BCSOA to supply umpires for Legion makeup games played on off-days.

"Legion games are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and our umpires were booked that way," he said. "If we wanted to play a makeup game on some other day of the week, it was hard to get umpires.

"If we wanted to play on a Sunday, umpires were paid double. That was a contributing factor in our league's decision to form our own association in the first place."

During this off-season, a few of the Legion umpires received letters from the BCSOA offering them a chance to join. Some of them did.

Holt said some of the BCAL umpires worked games with BCSOA members during the fall "as part of the effort to bring all of the umpires together.

"We sent letters out to the quality umpires who worked those fall games with us," Holt added. "We did not send letters to all of their umpires."

"We're always looking to increase our membership," Derringer said. "We're not stealing anybody's umpires. It's a matter of free choice.

"When the Legion league formed its umpire association, a few of our members left to join them. This is no different," he added.

Schnur said the BCAL is currently looking to train more umpires for the 2004 season.

"My concern is that we're going to be short of umpires," said Kevin Shaffer, manager of the Center Township American Legion team. "As a manager, I'm ultimately interested in what's best for my team."

Shaffer said Cunningham attempted to serve as a liaison between the two organizations.

"It's all about kids playing ball," Cunningham said. "We can't let personal feelings get in the way.

"Denny and I were trying to resolve this in a peaceful and amicable way," he added.

In a letter drafted by Schnur relating to the current BCAL umpiring drive, Schnur wrote that "eight or more new umpires over 19 years of age are necessary to fill our needs for the upcoming season."

He wrote that "each Legion team will need to recruit one or more new umpires before April 15."

Steiner said both organizations have an umpire shortage.

"There is a shortage of umpires, period," he said. "For the past several generations in sports, parents and former Legion players have not been getting into umpiring.

"The really good umpires are overworked. They have families themselves and they need a break. We'd all be better off if both sides got together, but I don't think it's going to happen," Steiner added.

Schnur said he anticipates the BCAL having 20 umpires ready to work games this season.

"I have no concern of a shortage," he said. "We've gotten a number of responses from people wanting to work our games."