Posted on Mon, Feb. 14, 2005
Youth leagues cry foul over umpires' insurance
BY LORI O'TOOLE BUSELT
The Wichita Eagle
Being an umpire at youth baseball games may pose some risk, such as catching a ball in the face.
But nonprofit groups who run baseball games for youths say it's unfair that they have to pay the same rate to insure their umpires as professional sports teams do for theirs.
Westurban Baseball, a nonproft group for kids ages 4 to 18, is pushing for a law that would exempt nonprofit groups that hire sports officials -- such as umpires -- from workers' compensation laws.
Workers' compensation is a form of insurance that pays medical costs and some lost wages for workers injured on the job.
If the bill does not pass the Kansas Legislature, the club will likely have to raise fees for the 2,100 youths who play in the league, said Eric Blasdel, Westurban's general manager.
Richard Schweninger, a local independent insurance agent who represents Wichita's Westurban Baseball, admits that little league is not quite the pros.
"The ball is thrown much harder, it is hit much harder," he said.
Leaders of a similar nonprofit league in Lenexa -- which is protesting its $70,000 a year umpire workers' compensation bill from the same company -- also is pushing for the change.
Westurban pays about $11,500 a year in workers' compensation fees for its 85 umpires. That's eight percent of its total costs for something Blasdel said is unnecessary.
Westurban and The 3&2 Baseball Club of Johnson County said their insurance company -- Continental Western Insurance Company -- requires them to pay the fee.
Officials with both say they have challenged the insurance bills and the company is working with them on the issue.
An official with Berkley Risk Administrators Company, which oversees the accounts, did not return calls.
Schweninger, who also has been a coach for many years at Westurban, agrees that the rates are unfair, but it follows established rates, he said.
"Quite honestly, it's pretty frustrating," said Schweninger, who supports the change.
League leaders said they feel singled out to some degree because not all nonprofits are required to provide the same coverage.
Paul Bowerman, treasurer for Southwest Boys Club -- a nonprofit that offers a league for about 500 Wichita area youths -- said the club does not pay for umpire workers' compensation.
"They're not employees of ours," he said.
Blasdel said he knows of only one umpire injury at Westurban in the past 15 years, when an umpire two years ago caught a ball in his face. He got a black eye but suffered no permanent damage, Blasdel said.
Westurban picked up the medical expenses, Blasdel said, and the league budgets about $2,900 a year to cover such costs.
About half of the umpires are teens and students who do not have full-time careers or families to support, he said.
"We're not saying they shouldn't be protected," Blasdel said. "There should be insurance for them. But I think we're being taken to the cleaners."
Hearings are scheduled Tuesday for House Bill 2039 and Senate Bill 177, said Rep. Eric Carter, R-Overland Park, who introduced the House bill.
Carter said that six or seven other states have passed similar laws and he is hoping this can be a quick fix.
"It's really just an odd market anomaly," he said, "and we'll get this fixed."
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