David,
I appreciate the rephrase, and figured that's what you meant, but had to call out the blanket statement of no evals.
I honestly don't know if anyone from FL is on TV this year. We had a guy from my district there in 03. I believe I can umpire circles around this guy, but he said he had a blast dancing with Dugout. I just won't do that...ever.
The point of my original post was the fact that in the levels that move you up...Sectionals and States (in Florida)...the evaluation is identical to what the FHSAA uses. In the Big League Southern Region...NO TV...they used professional standards for the WS evals. It was very intense, and a fantastic learning experience for me.
However, once the guys get to Majors (12yo) Southern Region (TV game for finals), the way they called the games was totally different from what the criteria had been up to that point. Southern Regions gets evaluated for World Series (TV all the way through). I wasn't in the umpire room, so can't say for sure, but the way everything changed on the field, those guys are being coached to go over the top for TV presentation.
There is no way 12 different guys from all over the SE can have such horrid, yet similar mechanics at the same time, unless that is what they were told to do. That is wrong and that is why these guys are Sooooo noticable when they screw up. Because of this, I forsee that I will never be on TV for LL because I'm not changing just for TV.
The bigger problem is that after you are rated to move up...State, Region, whatever...it is up to a DA or Region bureaucrat as to who actually moves up from the approved list, not the actual umpire evaluators.
That is where they start rewarding time in, do you do concession stand work as well, will you do what you are told no matter how stupid it is, etc.
On that point I agree wholeheartedly with the bashers. The LLWS does not get the best umpires, but the best volunteers who happen to umpire.
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