VALLEY / VENTURA COUNTY SPORTS : Wolf Cashes In on the Experience

Jim Wolf doesn’t know how much he is being paid for working as a fill-in umpire in the major leagues.

“I don’t care,” he said.

Wolf, 30, feels like he’s breathing rarefied air from the highest mountaintop. The excitement of reaching the majors 82 days after his younger brother, Randy, made it as a pitcher with the Philadephia Phillies is a unique accomplishment.

These two El Camino Real High graduates separated by seven years in age have earned a place in baseball history.

Jim’s first game as a major league umpire came Thursday in the Phillies-Giants game with his brother watching from the dugout to make the moment even more special.

“It was an honor just to be on the field with the major league guys,” Jim said Saturday morning from Edmonton, where he is umpiring a triple-A series. “To have Randy out there, it was totally incredible. I was totally nervous. I had butterflies big-time until the second inning. I looked at the grass, looked at the dirt and said, ‘It’s all the same.’ ”

Jim had to work a Pacific Coast League game in Fresno the same night as his major league debut.

“I was tired,” he said. “My feet were killing me, I was delirious. I was working on a couple hours sleep.”

Jim and Randy had a photo taken together Thursday in their uniforms. Their mother, Judy, who lives in West Hills, will probably get it framed.

It was a day to remember for two brothers reunited in the major leagues.