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This place they had the tournament won't ever get a state or regional. They usually get a district at one level or another because it's a central location. But past that, the place is a piece of junk.
The biggest problem with having non-certified umpires is that they have no one to answer to, and nothing held over their heads. But the tournament is over now, and there's nothing that can be done at this point.
Around here, we have an Area, divided into two Districts. Each district is divided into Large and Small, so there are four district tournaments at each age level in our area. So it makes for quite a shortage of umpires. The top two teams from each district tournament advance to the Area, plus the tournament host, making a five-team, double-elimination tournament. (Still divided into Large and Small). The area winners go to state, where the Large/Small stuff goes out the window.
In our district (Northwest Small), as far as I know, myself and my partner were the only two certified umpires working. We had the 10-and-under tournament, which was hosted by our league. Both the Babe Ruth 15's and the Cal Ripken 12-and-under were at the same location, and neither had certified umpires except for the championship game of the 12U. I'm not sure about the 7-8 machine pitch tournament, but I heard some horror stories from some fans about those guys, so I kinda doubt they were certified either. And I don't even know if they have a 16-18 league around here; most of those guys play travel ball in the summer.
[Edited by bigwes68 on Jul 5th, 2004 at 07:59 PM]
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