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Originally Posted by Carl Childress
Yesterday, my wife and I watched the Little Legion regional game between IA and MO.
The plate umpire was the best Little League umpire I've every seen on TV.
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I agree he was very, very good. He was rock solid, had a perfectly appropriate strikezone, and as best as I could tell, never came close to missing a pitch.
He loses a couple of style points in my book for his fairly robotic, softball-style strike and out mechanics. And his shirt didn't quite fit over that +POS chest protector with 5,000 rivets.
A close second was the umpire in the first regional game, the Southeast region in Florida. Another very solid plate performance.
In fact, there hasn't been a bad plate performance yet, which supports the contention I've been making for awhile that "LL umpires" have come a long way, baby, compared to only a few years ago. Anyone who remembers "lobster claw man" will probably agree.
The only significant glitch in 5 games so far, is the blown call at 1B in the Southwest Region game, that took the game tying run off the scoreboard, in a game that finished 1-0. An unfortunate gross miss at the worst possible time.
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MO won, and they're going to the World Series. I imagine the umpire won't.
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He won't this year, because that's not the way LL regional and WS assignments work. You work one or the other, not both. This year's WS umpires are, this week, basking in the celebrity of "LLWS hype week;" they'll go to work next week. This year's regional umpires are, by their performances, positioning themselves in the pecking order for future LLWS assignments.
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I was surprised that the mandatory play rule was in effect as high as the regionals. They always suspend it for the World Series.
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With respect to Little League rules, you should never say "never" or "always." The tournament rules are exactly the same at all levels of tournament play, and MPR has been part of the tournament rules, in some form or fashion, for several years now.